Exact Sciences (NASDAQ:EXAS) Shares Gap Up to $63.86

Exact Sciences Co. (NASDAQ:EXAS - Get Free Report)'s share price gapped up prior to trading on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $63.86, but opened at $65.62. Exact Sciences shares last traded at $64.78, with a volume of 252,393 shares changing hands.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. TheStreet cut shares of Exact Sciences from a "c-" rating to a "d+" rating in a research note on Monday, February 26th. William Blair reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Exact Sciences in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. Canaccord Genuity Group dropped their price target on shares of Exact Sciences from $100.00 to $90.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. Benchmark raised shares of Exact Sciences from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $91.00 price target for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 2nd. Finally, Citigroup reissued a "buy" rating and set a $100.00 price target on shares of Exact Sciences in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $97.44.

Exact Sciences Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 2.32, a quick ratio of 2.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. The company's 50 day moving average is $63.36 and its 200-day moving average is $65.11. The company has a market capitalization of $11.48 billion, a P/E ratio of -55.46 and a beta of 1.25.

Exact Sciences (NASDAQ:EXAS - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The medical research company reported ($0.27) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.53) by $0.26. The company had revenue of $646.89 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $638.83 million. Exact Sciences had a negative net margin of 8.17% and a negative return on equity of 6.60%. Exact Sciences's quarterly revenue was up 17.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned ($0.72) EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Exact Sciences Co. will post -0.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Exact Sciences

In other Exact Sciences news, CEO Kevin T. Conroy sold 14,791 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.43, for a total transaction of $908,611.13. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,224,357 shares in the company, valued at approximately $75,212,250.51. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, insider Jacob A. Orville sold 966 shares of Exact Sciences stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.43, for a total value of $59,341.38. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 7,488 shares in the company, valued at $459,987.84. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Kevin T. Conroy sold 14,791 shares of Exact Sciences stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.43, for a total transaction of $908,611.13. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,224,357 shares of the company's stock, valued at $75,212,250.51. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 69,113 shares of company stock worth $4,165,273. 1.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Exact Sciences

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. True Wealth Design LLC purchased a new position in shares of Exact Sciences in the fourth quarter worth approximately $30,000. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Exact Sciences by 459.5% in the fourth quarter. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC now owns 414 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 340 shares during the last quarter. KB Financial Partners LLC purchased a new position in Exact Sciences during the second quarter valued at approximately $32,000. BluePath Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Exact Sciences during the third quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Finally, Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. purchased a new position in Exact Sciences during the third quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.82% 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.