Wells Fargo & Company Trims Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) Target Price to $82.00

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) had its target price lowered by Wells Fargo & Company from $85.00 to $82.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “overweight” rating on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company‘s target price would indicate a potential upside of 103.52% from the company’s previous close.

Several other analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Oppenheimer increased their target price on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $72.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. Wolfe Research raised shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $58.00 target price for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $60.00 price objective on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a report on Wednesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $59.54.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Price Performance

Shares of IONS traded down $0.64 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $40.29. The stock had a trading volume of 526,504 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,109,762. The business has a fifty day moving average of $42.86 and a 200 day moving average of $46.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.18, a quick ratio of 5.83 and a current ratio of 5.90. The firm has a market cap of $5.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -15.88 and a beta of 0.41. Ionis Pharmaceuticals has a 12 month low of $34.79 and a 12 month high of $54.44.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The company reported ($0.98) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.10) by $0.12. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative net margin of 46.32% and a negative return on equity of 90.29%. The company had revenue of $119.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $131.42 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned ($0.87) EPS. Ionis Pharmaceuticals’s revenue for the quarter was down 9.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that Ionis Pharmaceuticals will post -3.76 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Joseph Klein III sold 6,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.71, for a total value of $256,260.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 16,346 shares in the company, valued at $698,137.66. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, Director Joseph Klein III sold 6,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.71, for a total value of $256,260.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 16,346 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $698,137.66. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Joseph Baroldi sold 4,006 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.60, for a total value of $166,649.60. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 19,631 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $816,649.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 10,393 shares of company stock valued at $440,127. 2.65% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in IONS. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC raised its position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 4.4% during the 3rd quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 21,470 shares of the company’s stock valued at $974,000 after purchasing an additional 897 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates lifted its stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 1.4% in the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 194,629 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,828,000 after acquiring an additional 2,745 shares during the period. NBT Bank N A NY purchased a new stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the third quarter worth about $773,000. TD Asset Management Inc grew its holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 14.5% during the 3rd quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 898,852 shares of the company’s stock worth $40,772,000 after acquiring an additional 113,644 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Peoples Bank KS bought a new stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the 3rd quarter valued at about $39,000. 93.86% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Ionis Pharmaceuticals

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc discovers and develops RNA-targeted therapeutics in the United States. The company offers SPINRAZA for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) in pediatric and adult patients; TEGSEDI, an antisense injection for the treatment of polyneuropathy caused by hereditary transthyretin amyloidosis in adults; and WAYLIVRA, an antisense medicine for treatment for familial chylomicronemia syndrome (FCS) and familial partial lipodystrophy.