Cetera Investment Advisers Sells 9,312 Shares of Exact Sciences Co. (NASDAQ:EXAS)

Cetera Investment Advisers lowered its position in shares of Exact Sciences Co. (NASDAQ:EXAS) by 10.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 82,637 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 9,312 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers’ holdings in Exact Sciences were worth $4,643,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of EXAS. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in Exact Sciences by 130.6% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 22,801 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,281,000 after acquiring an additional 12,912 shares during the last quarter. Avanza Fonder AB acquired a new stake in shares of Exact Sciences in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,096,000. Merit Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Exact Sciences in the fourth quarter valued at about $235,000. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Exact Sciences in the fourth quarter valued at about $327,000. Finally, Artemis Investment Management LLP increased its stake in shares of Exact Sciences by 139.6% in the fourth quarter. Artemis Investment Management LLP now owns 255,842 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $14,376,000 after buying an additional 149,067 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 88.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on Exact Sciences from $69.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $60.00 price target on shares of Exact Sciences in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Exact Sciences from $52.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Bank of America decreased their price target on Exact Sciences from $72.00 to $65.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Scotiabank increased their price target on Exact Sciences from $70.00 to $73.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nineteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $70.90.

Exact Sciences Trading Up 2.2%

NASDAQ EXAS opened at $54.87 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $45.94 and a 200 day simple moving average of $52.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.35 billion, a P/E ratio of -9.85 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 2.15 and a quick ratio of 1.93. Exact Sciences Co. has a one year low of $39.97 and a one year high of $72.83.

Exact Sciences (NASDAQ:EXAS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The medical research company reported ($0.21) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.37) by $0.16. The business had revenue of $706.79 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $688.58 million. Exact Sciences had a negative return on equity of 5.29% and a negative net margin of 37.29%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 10.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned ($0.60) earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Exact Sciences Co. will post -0.58 earnings per share for the current year.

About Exact Sciences

Exact Sciences Corporation provides cancer screening and diagnostic test products in the United States and internationally. The company offers Cologuard, a non-invasive stool-based DNA screening test to detect DNA and hemoglobin biomarkers associated with colorectal cancer and pre-cancer. It also provides Oncotype DX Breast Recurrence Score Test; Oncotype DX Breast DCIS Score Test; Oncotype DX Colon Recurrence Score Test; OncoExTra Test for tumor profiling for patients with advanced, metastatic, refractory, relapsed, or recurrent cancer; and Covid-19 testing services.