Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. Acquires 60,660 Shares of Exact Sciences Corporation $EXAS

Key Points

• Charles Schwab Investment Management increased its holdings in Exact Sciences Corporation by 4.6% during the first quarter, now owning approximately 1.39 million shares valued at $60.24 million.
• Exact Sciences reported $0.22 earnings per share for the latest quarter, surpassing analysts' expectations and showing a 16% increase in revenue year-over-year.
• Multiple institutional investors have significantly increased their stakes in Exact Sciences, with 88.82% of the company's stock now held by institutional and hedge fund investors.

Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Exact Sciences Corporation (NASDAQ:EXAS - Free Report) by 4.6% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,391,599 shares of the medical research company's stock after buying an additional 60,660 shares during the quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. owned 0.74% of Exact Sciences worth $60,242,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in EXAS. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in shares of Exact Sciences by 74.7% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,760,241 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $323,669,000 after buying an additional 2,462,165 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its position in shares of Exact Sciences by 10.7% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,537,617 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $985,439,000 after purchasing an additional 1,696,321 shares in the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its position in shares of Exact Sciences by 107.7% during the 4th quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 2,919,325 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $164,037,000 after purchasing an additional 1,513,873 shares in the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Exact Sciences by 25.8% during the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,269,823 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $239,922,000 after purchasing an additional 876,985 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Exact Sciences by 3.6% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 17,637,674 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $763,535,000 after purchasing an additional 617,384 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.82% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of Exact Sciences from $69.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. BTIG Research dropped their target price on shares of Exact Sciences from $65.00 to $60.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, August 12th. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their target price on shares of Exact Sciences from $54.00 to $46.00 and set a "sector perform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Exact Sciences from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Saturday, August 9th. Finally, Cowen reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Exact Sciences in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Exact Sciences presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $67.43.

Exact Sciences Price Performance

NASDAQ:EXAS traded up $0.2890 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $45.9690. 495,023 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,781,066. Exact Sciences Corporation has a 12 month low of $38.81 and a 12 month high of $72.83. The company has a fifty day moving average of $50.01 and a 200 day moving average of $49.48. The company has a quick ratio of 2.56, a current ratio of 2.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. The stock has a market cap of $8.70 billion, a PE ratio of -8.44, a PEG ratio of 4.61 and a beta of 0.93.

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

Insider Activity

In other news, Director James Edward Doyle sold 1,485 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.02, for a total value of $62,399.70. Following the transaction, the director owned 59,962 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,519,603.24. This trade represents a 2.42% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Katherine S. Zanotti sold 3,207 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.20, for a total transaction of $170,612.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 72,759 shares in the company, valued at $3,870,778.80. This trade represents a 4.22% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About Exact Sciences

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.