C WorldWide Group Holding A S Sells 60,000 Shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. $IONS

Key Points

• C WorldWide Group Holding A S trimmed its Ionis Pharmaceuticals stake by 14.1% in the fourth quarter, selling 60,000 shares and ending with 366,000 shares valued at about $28.95 million.
• Ionis reported better-than-expected Q1 results, posting a smaller-than-expected loss of $0.56 per share and revenue of $246 million, up 86.4% year over year.
• Wall Street remains generally bullish on the stock, with a Moderate Buy consensus and an average price target of $99.35, even as some insiders have recently sold shares.

C WorldWide Group Holding A S reduced its position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS - Free Report) by 14.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 366,000 shares of the company's stock after selling 60,000 shares during the quarter. Ionis Pharmaceuticals makes up about 0.5% of C WorldWide Group Holding A S's investment portfolio, making the stock its 26th largest holding. C WorldWide Group Holding A S owned approximately 0.23% of Ionis Pharmaceuticals worth $28,954,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its holdings in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 66.1% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 862,593 shares of the company's stock worth $56,431,000 after buying an additional 343,409 shares in the last quarter. Dynasty Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the third quarter worth $938,000. Jain Global LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 3,037.4% in the third quarter. Jain Global LLC now owns 225,739 shares of the company's stock worth $14,768,000 after buying an additional 218,544 shares in the last quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 248.3% in the fourth quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 217,897 shares of the company's stock worth $17,238,000 after buying an additional 155,334 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ lifted its holdings in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 161.3% in the third quarter. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ now owns 155,790 shares of the company's stock worth $10,192,000 after buying an additional 96,164 shares in the last quarter. 93.86% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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Ionis Pharmaceuticals Price Performance

NASDAQ IONS opened at $75.71 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -36.57 and a beta of 0.38. Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has a 52 week low of $32.00 and a 52 week high of $86.74. The company has a quick ratio of 4.09, a current ratio of 4.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.75. The company has a fifty day moving average of $74.79 and a two-hundred day moving average of $77.42.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported ($0.56) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.85) by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $246.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $195.57 million. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative net margin of 30.91% and a negative return on equity of 58.65%. The business's revenue was up 86.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.93) earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post -3.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on IONS shares. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $87.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, February 27th. TD Cowen cut their price objective on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $110.00 to $108.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 23rd. Needham & Company LLC raised their price objective on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $103.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 25th. Weiss Ratings restated a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $73.00 to $77.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $99.35.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Kyle Jenne sold 4,902 shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.17, for a total value of $368,483.34. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 23,713 shares in the company, valued at $1,782,506.21. The trade was a 17.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, EVP Shannon L. Devers sold 6,193 shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.05, for a total value of $458,591.65. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 16,348 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,210,569.40. The trade was a 27.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last three months, insiders sold 637,013 shares of company stock valued at $48,098,942. Insiders own 2.71% of the company's stock.

About Ionis Pharmaceuticals

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc is a biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of RNA-targeted therapies designed to modulate gene expression. The company's proprietary antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) technology enables the selective binding of short synthetic strands of nucleic acids to messenger RNA (mRNA), thereby inhibiting or altering the production of disease-causing proteins. Ionis' pipeline spans a range of therapeutic areas, including neurological disorders, cardiovascular conditions, metabolic diseases and rare genetic disorders.

Since its founding in 1989 by Dr.

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