Investors Buy High Volume of Exact Sciences Call Options (NASDAQ:EXAS)

Exact Sciences Co. (NASDAQ:EXAS) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Tuesday. Investors acquired 16,937 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 291% compared to the average daily volume of 4,328 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling at Exact Sciences

In other news, insider Jacob A. Orville sold 966 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.43, for a total value of $59,341.38. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 7,488 shares in the company, valued at approximately $459,987.84. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other Exact Sciences news, insider Jacob A. Orville sold 1,078 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.50, for a total transaction of $66,297.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 8,658 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $532,467. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Jacob A. Orville sold 966 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.43, for a total transaction of $59,341.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 7,488 shares in the company, valued at $459,987.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 69,113 shares of company stock worth $4,165,273. Insiders own 1.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in EXAS. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Exact Sciences during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $120,308,000. Capital World Investors raised its position in shares of Exact Sciences by 17.2% in the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 5,487,009 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $383,652,000 after acquiring an additional 804,159 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Exact Sciences by 4.4% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,676,611 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $541,823,000 after purchasing an additional 698,740 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC boosted its position in Exact Sciences by 94.0% during the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 1,360,917 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $100,681,000 after purchasing an additional 659,235 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Artisan Partners Limited Partnership grew its stake in Exact Sciences by 12.8% in the fourth quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 4,470,278 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $330,711,000 after purchasing an additional 508,764 shares during the last quarter. 88.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Exact Sciences Price Performance

Shares of EXAS opened at $63.22 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 2.07 and a current ratio of 2.32. Exact Sciences has a 52-week low of $56.05 and a 52-week high of $100.77. The business has a fifty day moving average of $63.36 and a 200 day moving average of $65.11.

Exact Sciences (NASDAQ:EXAS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The medical research company reported ($0.27) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.53) by $0.26. The firm had revenue of $646.89 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $638.83 million. Exact Sciences had a negative return on equity of 6.60% and a negative net margin of 8.17%. Exact Sciences’s quarterly revenue was up 17.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned ($0.72) EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Exact Sciences will post -0.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have issued reports on EXAS shares. Citigroup reissued a “buy” rating and set a $100.00 price target on shares of Exact Sciences in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Exact Sciences in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. Canaccord Genuity Group lowered their target price on shares of Exact Sciences from $100.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. TheStreet lowered Exact Sciences from a “c-” rating to a “d+” rating in a research note on Monday, February 26th. Finally, Benchmark raised Exact Sciences from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $91.00 price target on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 2nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $97.44.

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.