Ensign Peak Advisors Inc Grows Position in Exact Sciences Co. (NASDAQ:EXAS)

Ensign Peak Advisors Inc lifted its stake in shares of Exact Sciences Co. (NASDAQ:EXAS - Free Report) by 7.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,288,876 shares of the medical research company's stock after purchasing an additional 87,401 shares during the period. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc owned 0.70% of Exact Sciences worth $72,422,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Asset Planning Inc bought a new position in shares of Exact Sciences in the fourth quarter worth $40,000. AlphaQuest LLC increased its position in shares of Exact Sciences by 22,825.0% in the fourth quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 917 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $52,000 after purchasing an additional 913 shares during the last quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in Exact Sciences in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $66,000. Ostrum Asset Management lifted its position in Exact Sciences by 28.4% during the fourth quarter. Ostrum Asset Management now owns 2,382 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $134,000 after purchasing an additional 527 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kieckhefer Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Exact Sciences in the 4th quarter worth $188,000. Institutional investors own 88.82% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Exact Sciences from $69.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Scotiabank lifted their target price on shares of Exact Sciences from $70.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock a "sector outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Mizuho assumed coverage on Exact Sciences in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $60.00 price objective on the stock. Bank of America lowered their target price on Exact Sciences from $72.00 to $65.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on Exact Sciences from $52.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nineteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Exact Sciences presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $70.90.

Exact Sciences Trading Up 0.8%

NASDAQ EXAS traded up $0.42 on Thursday, hitting $55.29. 2,006,498 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,594,968. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 1.93 and a current ratio of 2.15. Exact Sciences Co. has a 52-week low of $39.97 and a 52-week high of $72.83. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.43 billion, a P/E ratio of -9.93 and a beta of 0.92. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $45.94 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $52.50.

Exact Sciences (NASDAQ:EXAS - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The medical research company reported ($0.21) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.37) by $0.16. Exact Sciences had a negative return on equity of 5.29% and a negative net margin of 37.29%. The business had revenue of $706.79 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $688.58 million. The business's revenue was up 10.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted ($0.60) earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Exact Sciences Co. will post -0.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Exact Sciences Profile

Exact Sciences Corporation provides cancer screening and diagnostic test products in the United States and internationally. The company offers Cologuard, a non-invasive stool-based DNA screening test to detect DNA and hemoglobin biomarkers associated with colorectal cancer and pre-cancer. It also provides Oncotype DX Breast Recurrence Score Test; Oncotype DX Breast DCIS Score Test; Oncotype DX Colon Recurrence Score Test; OncoExTra Test for tumor profiling for patients with advanced, metastatic, refractory, relapsed, or recurrent cancer; and Covid-19 testing services.