Insider Selling: Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) Director Sells $605,360.00 in Stock

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS) Director Spencer Berthelsen sold 8,000 shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.67, for a total value of $605,360.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 156,013 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,805,503.71. This represents a 4.88% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

IONS opened at $74.48 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $12.31 billion, a PE ratio of -35.98 and a beta of 0.37. The company has a current ratio of 4.10, a quick ratio of 4.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.75. Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has a 1 year low of $34.78 and a 1 year high of $86.74. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $74.95 and its 200-day simple moving average is $77.78.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported ($0.56) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.85) by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $246.09 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $195.57 million. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 58.65% and a negative net margin of 30.91%.The business’s revenue was up 86.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted ($0.93) earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post -3.78 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Bank of America upped their price target on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $100.00 to $111.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. Needham & Company LLC upped their price target on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $103.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 25th. Wall Street Zen raised Ionis Pharmaceuticals from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 2nd. Canaccord Genuity Group assumed coverage on Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Monday, April 20th. They set a “buy” rating and a $110.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $111.00 price target on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have issued a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ionis Pharmaceuticals currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $100.90.

Institutional Trading of Ionis Pharmaceuticals

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of IONS. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 72.5% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 652,518 shares of the company’s stock worth $19,686,000 after buying an additional 274,310 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 6.4% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 659,435 shares of the company’s stock worth $19,895,000 after buying an additional 39,794 shares in the last quarter. Focus Partners Wealth grew its holdings in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 30.1% during the first quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 9,832 shares of the company’s stock worth $297,000 after buying an additional 2,277 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. bought a new position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the second quarter worth about $220,000. Finally, Prudential Financial Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 47.8% during the second quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 9,254 shares of the company’s stock worth $341,000 after buying an additional 2,991 shares in the last quarter. 93.86% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.