Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) Given "Buy" Rating at HC Wainwright

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "buy" rating reissued by stock analysts at HC Wainwright in a research note issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $50.00 target price on the stock. HC Wainwright's target price indicates a potential upside of 51.61% from the company's current price.

IONS has been the topic of several other research reports. Citigroup dropped their target price on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $67.00 to $64.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an "outperform" rating and set a $70.00 price objective on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $47.00 to $45.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 24th. Redburn Atlantic initiated coverage on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Monday, March 31st. They set a "neutral" rating and a $39.00 price target for the company. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals to a "sell" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $56.67.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Price Performance

Shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals stock traded down $0.28 on Tuesday, hitting $32.98. The company's stock had a trading volume of 963,527 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,550,891. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.12, a quick ratio of 8.82 and a current ratio of 8.47. Ionis Pharmaceuticals has a 1 year low of $23.95 and a 1 year high of $52.34. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $30.59 and a 200-day moving average price of $33.03. The company has a market capitalization of $5.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -10.85 and a beta of 0.15.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The company reported ($0.93) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of ($1.07) by $0.14. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 100.05% and a negative net margin of 64.25%. The firm had revenue of $132.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $144.31 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.98) earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 10.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ionis Pharmaceuticals will post -3.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Michael R. Hayden acquired 15,000 shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 1st. The stock was bought at an average price of $31.86 per share, for a total transaction of $477,900.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 50,219 shares in the company, valued at $1,599,977.34. This represents a 42.59% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 2.60% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Ionis Pharmaceuticals

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Capital World Investors lifted its position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 46.5% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 11,465,413 shares of the company's stock worth $400,831,000 after buying an additional 3,637,041 shares during the period. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 14.2% during the first quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 16,175,533 shares of the company's stock worth $488,016,000 after acquiring an additional 2,006,334 shares during the last quarter. BVF Inc. IL acquired a new stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the first quarter valued at about $57,727,000. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $59,948,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 9.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,472,539 shares of the company's stock worth $575,880,000 after buying an additional 1,416,781 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.86% of the company's stock.

About Ionis Pharmaceuticals

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc discovers and develops RNA-targeted therapeutics in the United States. The company offers SPINRAZA for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) in pediatric and adult patients; TEGSEDI, an antisense injection for the treatment of polyneuropathy caused by hereditary transthyretin amyloidosis in adults; and WAYLIVRA, an antisense medicine for treatment for familial chylomicronemia syndrome (FCS) and familial partial lipodystrophy.