Exact Sciences Corporation $EXAS Shares Sold by Ameriprise Financial Inc.

Key Points

• Ameriprise Financial Inc. has reduced its position in Exact Sciences Corporation by 20.1%, now holding approximately 1.78% of the company, worth about $145.6 million after selling 844,256 shares.
• Several institutional investors have increased their stakes in Exact Sciences, with Price T Rowe Associates growing its holdings by 74.7% and Mackenzie Financial Corp boosting its position by 107.7% in the last quarter.
• Recent analyst ratings for Exact Sciences have seen price targets decrease, with Evercore ISI lowering its target from $68.00 to $64.00 while maintaining an "outperform" rating.

Ameriprise Financial Inc. lessened its stake in Exact Sciences Corporation (NASDAQ:EXAS - Free Report) by 20.1% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,363,783 shares of the medical research company's stock after selling 844,256 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. owned about 1.78% of Exact Sciences worth $145,618,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted 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 purchasing an additional 2,462,165 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its stake in shares of Exact Sciences by 107.7% in the 4th quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 2,919,325 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $164,037,000 after purchasing an additional 1,513,873 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of Exact Sciences in the 1st quarter valued at $45,334,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Exact Sciences by 3.6% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 17,637,674 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $763,535,000 after purchasing an additional 617,384 shares during the period. Finally, Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Exact Sciences in the 1st quarter valued at $20,803,000. 88.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Exact Sciences Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ EXAS traded up $0.60 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $46.71. The stock had a trading volume of 2,146,231 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,780,808. The company has a market capitalization of $8.84 billion, a PE ratio of -8.60, a P/E/G ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.93. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $49.28 and a 200-day simple moving average of $49.19. Exact Sciences Corporation has a 1 year low of $38.81 and a 1 year 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 released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The medical research company reported $0.22 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.02) by $0.24. The business had revenue of $811.09 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $774.43 million. Exact Sciences had a negative return on equity of 1.75% and a negative net margin of 34.19%.The business's quarterly revenue was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted ($0.09) earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Exact Sciences Corporation will post -0.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on Exact Sciences from $70.00 to $60.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 11th. Cowen reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Exact Sciences in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of Exact Sciences from $61.00 to $53.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Evercore ISI dropped 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. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Exact Sciences from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Saturday, August 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $67.05.

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.