Needham & Company LLC Reaffirms Buy Rating for Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS)

by · The Markets Daily

Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed their buy rating on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS – Free Report) in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. Needham & Company LLC currently has a $60.00 price target on the stock.

IONS has been the topic of several other reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. Bank of America upgraded Ionis Pharmaceuticals from a neutral rating to a buy rating and raised their price objective for the company from $52.00 to $62.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 2nd. StockNews.com raised Ionis Pharmaceuticals from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research report on Saturday, February 24th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a research report on Monday, December 18th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their target price on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $56.08.

View Our Latest Research Report on Ionis Pharmaceuticals

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:IONS opened at $41.74 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 5.90, a quick ratio of 5.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.18. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $44.74 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $47.44. Ionis Pharmaceuticals has a 1-year low of $34.32 and a 1-year high of $54.44. The stock has a market cap of $6.08 billion, a PE ratio of -16.30 and a beta of 0.39.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS – Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 21st. The company reported ($0.06) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.78) by $0.72. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 90.29% and a negative net margin of 46.32%. The business had revenue of $325.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $176.01 million. During the same period last year, the business earned ($0.37) EPS. The business’s revenue was up 113.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Ionis Pharmaceuticals will post -4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Ionis Pharmaceuticals

In related news, EVP Eric Swayze sold 1,907 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.56, for a total value of $94,510.92. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 34,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,701,097.44. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Brett P. Monia sold 23,501 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.37, for a total transaction of $1,160,244.37. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 174,138 shares in the company, valued at $8,597,193.06. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Eric Swayze sold 1,907 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.56, for a total value of $94,510.92. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 34,324 shares in the company, valued at $1,701,097.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 93,734 shares of company stock worth $4,724,226. Company insiders own 2.65% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ionis Pharmaceuticals

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Quilter Plc bought a new stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the first quarter valued at about $360,459,000. GAMMA Investing LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Pingora Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. Comerica Bank purchased a new position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the second quarter worth about $220,000. Finally, Mather Group LLC. purchased a new position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the first quarter worth about $29,000. 93.86% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

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.

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