Insider Selling: Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS) EVP Sells 2,430 Shares of Stock

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS) EVP Richard S. Geary sold 2,430 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.00, for a total value of $116,640.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 85,508 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,104,384. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

IONS stock traded up $0.03 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $47.03. The stock had a trading volume of 2,627,408 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,230,697. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $44.94 and a 200 day simple moving average of $44.31. Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $35.95 and a fifty-two week high of $54.44. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.86 billion, a PE ratio of -17.71 and a beta of 0.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.15, a current ratio of 7.37 and a quick ratio of 7.28.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported ($0.45) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.92) by $0.47. The business had revenue of $225.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $152.35 million. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative net margin of 44.90% and a negative return on equity of 109.65%. Ionis Pharmaceuticals’s revenue was up 19.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.60 EPS. Analysts predict that Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post -3.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 162.2% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 4,616,978 shares of the company’s stock valued at $233,573,000 after acquiring an additional 2,856,353 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,275,319 shares of the company’s stock worth $64,518,000 after purchasing an additional 33,012 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the 4th quarter valued at $59,288,000. TD Asset Management Inc grew its holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 6.5% in the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 956,852 shares of the company’s stock valued at $48,407,000 after buying an additional 58,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Candriam S.C.A. increased its position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 4.0% during the 2nd quarter. Candriam S.C.A. now owns 948,266 shares of the company’s stock worth $45,192,000 after buying an additional 36,369 shares during the period. 93.86% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently issued reports on IONS. SVB Leerink upgraded Ionis Pharmaceuticals from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $53.00 to $62.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $75.00 price target for the company. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $60.00 price objective on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a report on Friday. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and set a $44.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday, June 14th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets cut Ionis Pharmaceuticals from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $67.00 to $60.00 in a report on Friday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $60.68.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

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.