Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership Grows Position in Exelixis, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXEL)

Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its position in Exelixis, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXEL) by 104.4% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 3,159,395 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,613,482 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership’s holdings in Exelixis were worth $105,208,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in EXEL. USA Financial Formulas purchased a new position in shares of Exelixis in the fourth quarter valued at about $32,000. Principal Securities Inc. increased its holdings in Exelixis by 62.8% during the 4th quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 967 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 373 shares during the period. Kestra Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Exelixis during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $39,000. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its holdings in Exelixis by 68.4% in the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 1,361 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $45,000 after buying an additional 553 shares during the period. Finally, Crowley Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Exelixis in the 4th quarter worth approximately $50,000. 85.27% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently commented on EXEL shares. StockNews.com raised Exelixis from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Truist Financial raised their target price on shares of Exelixis from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. BMO Capital Markets cut shares of Exelixis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $36.00 to $40.00 in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Exelixis from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $30.00 to $40.00 in a report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company downgraded Exelixis from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $36.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Monday, February 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $37.59.

Exelixis Price Performance

Shares of Exelixis stock opened at $36.70 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $10.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.73, a PEG ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 0.57. Exelixis, Inc. has a 1 year low of $20.14 and a 1 year high of $40.02. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $35.71 and its 200 day moving average is $33.32.

Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The biotechnology company reported $0.48 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by ($0.03). Exelixis had a net margin of 24.04% and a return on equity of 23.52%. On average, equities analysts expect that Exelixis, Inc. will post 2.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Patrick J. Haley sold 10,000 shares of Exelixis stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.80, for a total value of $388,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 341,028 shares in the company, valued at $13,231,886.40. The trade was a 2.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Jack L. Wyszomierski sold 8,768 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.80, for a total transaction of $331,430.40. Following the transaction, the director now owns 356,605 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,479,669. This trade represents a 2.40 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 140,343 shares of company stock valued at $5,177,234. Corporate insiders own 2.85% of the company’s stock.

Exelixis Company Profile

Exelixis, Inc, an oncology company, focuses on the discovery, development, and commercialization of new medicines for difficult-to-treat cancers in the United States. The company offers CABOMETYX tablets for the treatment of patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma who received prior anti-angiogenic therapy; and COMETRIQ capsules for the treatment of progressive and metastatic medullary thyroid cancer.