Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. $IONS Stock Holdings Lowered by Teacher Retirement System of Texas

Key Points

• Teacher Retirement System of Texas trimmed its Ionis stake by 10.8% in Q4 to 422,899 shares (about $33.46M), and institutional investors now own roughly 93.86% of the company.
• Company insiders have sold a large amount of stock recently—864,155 shares worth about $67.0M in the past 90 days—including disclosed sales by director B. Lynne Parshall and EVP Eugene Schneider.
• Ionis reported Q4 EPS of -$1.41 (missing estimates) while revenue of $203.3M beat expectations but fell 10.6% YoY; the stock trades near $74 with a $12.24B market cap and a consensus "Moderate Buy" target of about $97.35 (Morgan Stanley raised its target to $130).

Teacher Retirement System of Texas reduced its stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS - Free Report) by 10.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 422,899 shares of the company's stock after selling 51,046 shares during the quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas owned about 0.26% of Ionis Pharmaceuticals worth $33,456,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. West Michigan Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the fourth quarter valued at about $3,039,000. HB Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the fourth quarter valued at about $231,000. M&T Bank Corp raised its stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 1,372.7% during the fourth quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 88,510 shares of the company's stock valued at $7,002,000 after purchasing an additional 82,500 shares in the last quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd raised its stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 608.4% during the fourth quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd now owns 1,091 shares of the company's stock valued at $86,000 after purchasing an additional 937 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Friedenthal Financial bought a new stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the fourth quarter valued at about $1,038,000. 93.86% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Stock Down 1.0%

Shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals stock opened at $74.09 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $76.12 and a 200 day moving average price of $77.13. The company has a market cap of $12.24 billion, a P/E ratio of -30.36 and a beta of 0.40. The company has a current ratio of 3.83, a quick ratio of 3.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.76. Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has a 1 year low of $28.79 and a 1 year high of $86.74.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 25th. The company reported ($1.41) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($1.23) by ($0.18). The business had revenue of $203.33 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $156.07 million. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 68.82% and a negative net margin of 40.36%.The firm's revenue was down 10.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted ($0.66) earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post -4.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Ionis Pharmaceuticals

In related news, Director B Lynne Parshall sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.27, for a total value of $381,350.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 51,344 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,916,006.88. This represents a 8.87% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP Eugene Schneider sold 5,812 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.97, for a total value of $412,477.64. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 63,890 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,534,273.30. This represents a 8.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 864,155 shares of company stock worth $67,020,422. 2.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on IONS shares. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $95.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday. Needham & Company LLC lifted their target price on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $103.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, March 25th. Bank of America lifted their target price on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $100.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, April 9th. Canaccord Genuity Group initiated coverage on Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a report on Monday. They set a "buy" rating and a $110.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a report on Wednesday, February 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have given a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $97.35.

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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