Analysts Set Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS) PT at $89.00

Shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-one ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have issued a hold recommendation, sixteen have issued a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $89.00.

IONS has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $73.00 to $77.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a report on Wednesday, February 25th. Morgan Stanley set a $95.00 price target on Ionis Pharmaceuticals and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 25th. Barclays assumed coverage on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a report on Wednesday, January 28th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $95.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $86.00 to $97.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 9th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ionis Pharmaceuticals

In other Ionis Pharmaceuticals news, EVP C Frank Bennett sold 85,089 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $82.93, for a total value of $7,056,430.77. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 80,293 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,658,698.49. This trade represents a 51.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Kyle Jenne sold 37,277 shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.85, for a total transaction of $2,827,460.45. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 11,714 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $888,506.90. The trade was a 76.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 804,850 shares of company stock worth $63,765,602 in the last three months. 2.60% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Ionis Pharmaceuticals

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in IONS. Corient Private Wealth LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 3,184.3% in the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 216,438 shares of the company’s stock valued at $17,122,000 after purchasing an additional 209,848 shares during the period. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the fourth quarter worth about $228,000. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV boosted its position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 48.2% in the fourth quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 5,554 shares of the company’s stock valued at $439,000 after buying an additional 1,807 shares during the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp boosted its position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 8.4% in the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 3,891 shares of the company’s stock valued at $307,000 after buying an additional 303 shares during the last quarter. Finally, ADAR1 Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 9.9% in the 4th quarter. ADAR1 Capital Management LLC now owns 147,130 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,639,000 after buying an additional 13,312 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.86% of the company’s stock.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Price Performance

Shares of IONS opened at $74.79 on Monday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $80.82 and a two-hundred day moving average of $74.01. The company has a quick ratio of 3.81, a current ratio of 3.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.76. Ionis Pharmaceuticals has a twelve month low of $23.95 and a twelve month high of $86.74. The company has a market cap of $12.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -30.65 and a beta of 0.31.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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 $203.33 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $156.07 million. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 68.82% and a negative net margin of 40.36%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted ($0.66) earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Ionis Pharmaceuticals will post -3.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Ionis Pharmaceuticals

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.