Insider Buying: Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) Director Acquires $800,700.00 in Stock

Key Points

• Ionis Pharmaceuticals director Michael Hayden bought 15,000 shares at an average price of $53.38, investing $800,700 and increasing his direct ownership by 375% to 19,000 shares.
• IONS recently traded at $51.77, well below its 52-week high of $86.74. The company reported stronger-than-expected quarterly revenue of $246.1 million, up 86.4% year over year, but remained unprofitable.
• Institutional investors own 93.86% of Ionis shares, while analysts maintain a “Moderate Buy” consensus with an average price target of $94.85.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS - Get Free Report) Director Michael Hayden acquired 15,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 30th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $53.38 per share, with a total value of $800,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 19,000 shares in the company, valued at $1,014,220. The trade was a 375.00% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

NASDAQ:IONS traded down $1.51 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $51.77. 2,564,124 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,436,866. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -14.96 and a beta of 0.36. Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has a 52-week low of $40.03 and a 52-week high of $86.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.75, a current ratio of 4.10 and a quick ratio of 4.09. The company's 50 day moving average price is $70.03 and its 200-day moving average price is $74.73.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly 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. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative net margin of 64.76% and a negative return on equity of 106.23%. The business had revenue of $246.09 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $195.56 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted ($0.93) EPS. Ionis Pharmaceuticals's revenue for the quarter was up 86.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post -3.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ionis Pharmaceuticals

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Capital World Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 41.2% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,961,299 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,420,918,000 after buying an additional 5,238,571 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 19,941.6% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,321,345 shares of the company's stock worth $104,532,000 after acquiring an additional 1,314,752 shares during the period. Baker BROS. Advisors LP grew its holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 216.1% during the fourth quarter. Baker BROS. Advisors LP now owns 1,791,841 shares of the company's stock worth $141,753,000 after acquiring an additional 1,225,043 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP raised its position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 7,219.3% during the third quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 958,829 shares of the company's stock valued at $62,727,000 after acquiring an additional 945,729 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership acquired a new position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the third quarter valued at approximately $41,223,000. 93.86% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on IONS shares. Weiss Ratings restated a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Friday, July 17th. Leerink Partners boosted their price target on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $122.00 to $129.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, June 25th. Guggenheim cut their price objective on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $106.00 to $89.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 21st. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $111.00 target price on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Barclays dropped their target price on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $115.00 to $90.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 10th. Eighteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Ionis Pharmaceuticals currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $94.85.

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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