Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL) Price Target Cut to $45.00 by Analysts at Royal Bank Of Canada

Key Points

• Royal Bank of Canada lowered Exelixis’ price target to $45 from $46 while maintaining a “sector perform” rating, implying 22.73% downside from the previous close.
• Analyst sentiment is broadly neutral: MarketBeat reports an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $50.36, with targets from other firms ranging from $49 to $56.
• Exelixis shares fell 0.3% to $58.24, while the company’s latest quarter showed adjusted earnings of $0.91 per share—above estimates—despite revenue of $628.69 million missing expectations.

Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL - Get Free Report) had its price objective lowered by equities research analysts at Royal Bank Of Canada from $46.00 to $45.00 in a research report issued on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a "sector perform" rating on the biotechnology company's stock. Royal Bank Of Canada's target price would suggest a potential downside of 22.73% from the stock's previous close.

Several other research firms have also recently weighed in on EXEL. Leerink Partners cut shares of Exelixis from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating and set a $52.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. HC Wainwright reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $56.00 price objective on shares of Exelixis in a research report on Thursday, July 2nd. Barclays raised their target price on Exelixis from $45.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 14th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Exelixis from a "buy (b)" rating to a "buy (a-)" rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. Finally, Truist Financial upped their price target on Exelixis from $52.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $50.36.

Exelixis Trading Down 0.3%

NASDAQ:EXEL traded down $0.20 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $58.24. The company had a trading volume of 258,742 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,590,622. Exelixis has a 1 year low of $33.76 and a 1 year high of $61.14. The company has a market cap of $14.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.27, a P/E/G ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 0.47. The company has a 50-day moving average of $56.07 and a 200 day moving average of $52.03.

Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The biotechnology company reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.85 by $0.06. Exelixis had a return on equity of 42.17% and a net margin of 35.33%.The business had revenue of $628.69 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $636.40 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.75 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was up 10.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Exelixis will post 3.19 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Exelixis news, Director Mary Beckerle sold 9,812 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.66, for a total transaction of $526,511.92. Following the sale, the director directly owned 16,079 shares in the company, valued at $862,799.14. This represents a 37.90% 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. 2.60% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Exelixis during the second quarter worth $1,581,991,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Exelixis by 0.9% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,299,597 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $184,391,000 after purchasing an additional 39,920 shares during the period. Assetmark Inc. grew its stake in Exelixis by 1.7% during the 1st quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 3,388,920 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $145,351,000 after purchasing an additional 58,149 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE increased its holdings in Exelixis by 30.7% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 2,149,397 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $116,949,000 after purchasing an additional 504,660 shares during the period. Finally, Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec purchased a new stake in Exelixis during the 2nd quarter worth about $113,951,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.27% of the company's stock.

Exelixis Company Profile

Exelixis, Inc is a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing, and commercializing medicines for cancer. The company's research and development activities are centered primarily on targeted therapies and other treatments for solid tumors.

Exelixis' principal product is cabozantinib, marketed in the United States as CABOMETYX tablets for certain patients with renal cell carcinoma, hepatocellular carcinoma, and differentiated thyroid cancer. The company also markets COMETRIQ, a cabozantinib formulation approved in the United States for progressive or metastatic medullary thyroid cancer.

Exelixis was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Alameda, California.

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