Ballentine Partners LLC Buys Shares of 4,838 Exact Sciences Corporation $EXAS

Key Points

• Ballentine Partners LLC purchased 4,838 shares of Exact Sciences Corporation, valued at approximately $257,000, as part of their investment in the medical research company during the 2nd quarter.
• Institutional investors now hold 88.82% of Exact Sciences, with multiple hedge funds increasing their stakes, reflecting strong interest in the company.
• Analysts have lowered their price targets for Exact Sciences, with the current consensus target price set at $68.05, amid a mixed set of ratings that includes one Strong Buy, nineteen Buys, and three Holds.

Ballentine Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Exact Sciences Corporation (NASDAQ:EXAS - Free Report) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 4,838 shares of the medical research company's stock, valued at approximately $257,000.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Exact Sciences during the 1st quarter worth about $34,000. Cerity Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Exact Sciences by 24.0% during the 1st quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 33,598 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $1,454,000 after purchasing an additional 6,508 shares during the last quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas acquired a new stake in shares of Exact Sciences during the 1st quarter worth about $1,171,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of Exact Sciences by 15.5% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,243 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $184,000 after purchasing an additional 569 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Merit Financial Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Exact Sciences by 110.0% during the 1st quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 8,799 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $381,000 after purchasing an additional 4,609 shares during the last quarter. 88.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Evercore ISI decreased their price target on shares of Exact Sciences from $68.00 to $64.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 8th. Piper Sandler decreased their price target on shares of Exact Sciences from $70.00 to $60.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 11th. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of Exact Sciences from $65.00 to $55.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Zacks Research cut shares of Exact Sciences from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, September 4th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their target price on shares of Exact Sciences from $54.00 to $46.00 and set a "sector perform" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $68.05.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director James Edward Doyle sold 1,485 shares of Exact Sciences stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.02, for a total transaction of $62,399.70. Following the sale, the director owned 59,962 shares in the company, valued at $2,519,603.24. This trade represents a 2.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 1.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Exact Sciences Trading Down 0.4%

EXAS opened at $53.38 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.11 billion, a P/E ratio of -9.83, a P/E/G ratio of 4.95 and a beta of 1.05. The firm's 50 day moving average is $49.00 and its 200-day moving average is $49.82. Exact Sciences Corporation has a 52-week low of $38.81 and a 52-week high of $72.83. The company has a quick ratio of 2.56, a current ratio of 2.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94.

Exact Sciences (NASDAQ:EXAS - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 6th. The medical research company reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.02) by $0.24. The company had revenue of $811.09 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $774.43 million. Exact Sciences had a negative net margin of 34.19% and a negative return on equity of 1.75%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted ($0.09) earnings per share. Analysts expect that Exact Sciences Corporation will post -0.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Exact Sciences Company 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.

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