Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL) Lowered to Buy Rating by Wall Street Zen

Key Points

• Exelixis has been downgraded from a strong-buy to a buy rating by analysts at Wall Street Zen, signaling a shift in investor sentiment.
• Despite the downgrade, Exelixis saw its stock rise by 2.9%, with shares opening at $37.26.
• The company reported $0.75 earnings per share for the last quarter, exceeding estimates, although revenue decreased by 10.8% compared to the previous year.

Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL - Get Free Report) was downgraded by stock analysts at Wall Street Zen from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note issued to investors on Saturday.

EXEL has been the topic of a number of other reports. Bank of America lifted their price objective on Exelixis from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, June 5th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on Exelixis from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Exelixis from $45.00 to $56.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 15th. UBS Group set a $38.00 price objective on Exelixis and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Benchmark reaffirmed a "neutral" rating on shares of Exelixis in a report on Monday, June 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Exelixis has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $44.44.

Exelixis Stock Up 2.9%

Shares of EXEL opened at $37.26 on Friday. Exelixis has a 12-month low of $23.21 and a 12-month high of $49.62. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.91, a P/E/G ratio of 0.75 and a beta of 0.29. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $42.93 and its 200 day moving average price is $38.90.

Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 28th. The biotechnology company reported $0.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.63 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $568.26 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $574.36 million. Exelixis had a return on equity of 27.47% and a net margin of 27.01%. The company's quarterly revenue was down 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.84 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Exelixis will post 2.04 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Exelixis news, CMO Amy C. Peterson sold 72,776 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.47, for a total transaction of $3,309,124.72. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer owned 465,393 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $21,161,419.71. This represents a 13.52% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Stelios Papadopoulos sold 36,508 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.35, for a total value of $1,619,129.80. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 1,279,416 shares in the company, valued at approximately $56,742,099.60. This represents a 2.77% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 456,605 shares of company stock worth $20,966,005. 2.82% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. LSV Asset Management raised its position in shares of Exelixis by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 8,169,847 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $272,056,000 after acquiring an additional 67,470 shares during the last quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Exelixis by 2.2% during the 1st quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 7,795,074 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $287,794,000 after acquiring an additional 164,134 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Exelixis by 73.8% during the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 6,893,889 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $250,869,000 after acquiring an additional 2,926,884 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in shares of Exelixis by 40.2% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,572,189 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $205,725,000 after acquiring an additional 1,596,948 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Exelixis during the 1st quarter valued at $123,310,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.27% of the company's stock.

About Exelixis

Exelixis, Inc, an oncology company, focuses on the discovery, development, and commercialization of new medicines for difficult-to-treat cancers in the United States. The company offers CABOMETYX tablets for the treatment of patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma who received prior anti-angiogenic therapy; and COMETRIQ capsules for the treatment of progressive and metastatic medullary thyroid cancer.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.