Zevenbergen Capital Investments LLC Cuts Stock Holdings in Exact Sciences Corporation (NASDAQ:EXAS)

Key Points

• Zevenbergen Capital Investments LLC sold 208,093 shares of Exact Sciences Corporation, reducing its position by 15.1% during the first quarter, now holding approximately 1.2% of the company's stock.
• A total of 88.82% of Exact Sciences' stock is owned by institutional investors, indicating strong interest from larger financial entities.
• Analysts have mixed ratings on Exact Sciences, with the consensus target price at $68.62, as several firms lowered their target prices while others maintained or increased their buy ratings.

Zevenbergen Capital Investments LLC lessened its stake in Exact Sciences Corporation (NASDAQ:EXAS - Free Report) by 15.1% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,167,964 shares of the medical research company's stock after selling 208,093 shares during the quarter. Exact Sciences comprises 1.2% of Zevenbergen Capital Investments LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 23rd biggest position. Zevenbergen Capital Investments LLC owned 0.62% of Exact Sciences worth $50,561,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of EXAS. Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Exact Sciences in the 1st quarter valued at $538,000. JFG Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Exact Sciences by 12.3% in the first quarter. JFG Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,101 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $221,000 after buying an additional 557 shares in the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. grew its position in Exact Sciences by 40.1% in the first quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 769,250 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $33,301,000 after acquiring an additional 219,988 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Exact Sciences by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 139,562 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $6,042,000 after purchasing an additional 562 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Gagnon Securities LLC grew its holdings in shares of Exact Sciences by 9.9% during the 1st quarter. Gagnon Securities LLC now owns 270,664 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $11,717,000 after purchasing an additional 24,460 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 88.82% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

EXAS has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. BTIG Research cut their target price on shares of Exact Sciences from $65.00 to $60.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Evercore ISI reduced their price objective on Exact Sciences from $68.00 to $64.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 8th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on Exact Sciences from $69.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed a "sector perform" rating and issued a $46.00 price objective (down previously from $54.00) on shares of Exact Sciences in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, Piper Sandler cut their target price on shares of Exact Sciences from $70.00 to $60.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $67.43.

Exact Sciences Stock Down 0.7%

EXAS stock traded down $0.30 during trading on Thursday, reaching $44.62. 2,091,251 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,775,922. The firm's 50 day moving average is $50.78 and its 200 day moving average is $49.80. The firm has a market cap of $8.45 billion, a P/E ratio of -8.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.27 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a current ratio of 2.89, a quick ratio of 2.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. Exact Sciences Corporation has a twelve month low of $38.81 and a twelve month high of $72.83.

Exact Sciences (NASDAQ:EXAS - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The medical research company reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.02) by $0.24. Exact Sciences had a negative return on equity of 1.75% and a negative net margin of 34.19%. The company had revenue of $811.09 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $774.43 million. During the same period last year, the business earned ($0.09) EPS. Exact Sciences's quarterly revenue was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Exact Sciences Corporation will post -0.58 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Exact Sciences

In other news, Director Katherine S. Zanotti sold 3,207 shares of Exact Sciences 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 1.20% of the company's stock.

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.