Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) Price Target Raised to $100.00

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) had its target price raised by stock analysts at Piper Sandler from $87.00 to $100.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “overweight” rating on the stock. Piper Sandler’s price target indicates a potential upside of 23.06% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Wednesday. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, November 1st. Barclays assumed coverage on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a report on Wednesday, January 28th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $95.00 target price on the stock. Finally, TD Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a report on Wednesday, December 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have assigned a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $88.80.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Trading Up 0.8%

Shares of NASDAQ IONS traded up $0.66 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $81.26. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 740,925 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,227,460. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96, a current ratio of 2.79 and a quick ratio of 2.78. The stock has a market cap of $13.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -33.28 and a beta of 0.29. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $81.30 and its 200-day simple moving average is $71.63. Ionis Pharmaceuticals has a one year low of $23.95 and a one year high of $86.74.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 25th. The company reported ($1.41) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.23) by ($0.18). The business had revenue of $203.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $156.07 million. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative net margin of 40.36% and a negative return on equity of 66.25%. Ionis Pharmaceuticals’s revenue was down 10.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($0.66) earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ionis Pharmaceuticals will post -3.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ionis Pharmaceuticals

In other Ionis Pharmaceuticals news, EVP Eric Swayze sold 23,463 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.12, for a total transaction of $1,856,392.56. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 30,453 shares in the company, valued at $2,409,441.36. This represents a 43.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Joseph H. Wender sold 28,000 shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction on Monday, December 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.82, for a total value of $2,262,960.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 36,035 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,912,348.70. The trade was a 43.73% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 464,579 shares of company stock valued at $37,630,193. 2.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Grandfield & Dodd LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Grandfield & Dodd LLC now owns 37,821 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,992,000 after buying an additional 146 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC raised its stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 7.3% during the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 2,488 shares of the company’s stock valued at $163,000 after acquiring an additional 170 shares during the last quarter. Wedmont Private Capital lifted its holdings in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 5,536 shares of the company’s stock worth $460,000 after purchasing an additional 173 shares during the period. Prospera Financial Services Inc grew its stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. Prospera Financial Services Inc now owns 4,759 shares of the company’s stock worth $376,000 after purchasing an additional 178 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MetLife Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 2.6% in the fourth quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 9,674 shares of the company’s stock valued at $765,000 after purchasing an additional 246 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 93.86% of the company’s stock.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc is a biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of RNA-targeted therapies designed to modulate gene expression. The company’s proprietary antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) technology enables the selective binding of short synthetic strands of nucleic acids to messenger RNA (mRNA), thereby inhibiting or altering the production of disease-causing proteins. Ionis’ pipeline spans a range of therapeutic areas, including neurological disorders, cardiovascular conditions, metabolic diseases and rare genetic disorders.

Since its founding in 1989 by Dr.