Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) Upgraded to Outperform at Wolfe Research

Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS - Free Report) from a peer perform rating to an outperform rating in a report released on Wednesday morning, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Wolfe Research currently has $58.00 target price on the stock.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on IONS. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a buy rating and issued a $60.00 target price on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Tuesday. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Bank of America raised shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from a neutral rating to a buy rating and raised their price target for the stock from $52.00 to $62.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 2nd. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their price target on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Thursday, February 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $56.08.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Trading Up 0.3 %

NASDAQ:IONS traded up $0.11 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $42.94. The company's stock had a trading volume of 825,654 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,175,550. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -16.73 and a beta of 0.39. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $45.23 and a 200-day simple moving average of $47.52. Ionis Pharmaceuticals has a 1 year low of $34.32 and a 1 year high of $54.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.18, a quick ratio of 5.83 and a current ratio of 5.90.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The company reported ($0.06) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.78) by $0.72. The company had revenue of $325.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $176.01 million. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative net margin of 46.32% and a negative return on equity of 90.29%. The firm's revenue was up 113.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned ($0.37) EPS. Research analysts expect that Ionis Pharmaceuticals will post -3.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Eugene Schneider sold 8,000 shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.50, for a total transaction of $428,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 38,170 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,042,095. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, EVP Eugene Schneider sold 8,000 shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.50, for a total transaction of $428,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 38,170 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,042,095. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Brett P. Monia sold 32,059 shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.42, for a total transaction of $1,616,414.78. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 154,136 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,771,537.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 101,734 shares of company stock valued at $5,152,226. Corporate insiders own 2.65% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ionis Pharmaceuticals

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Pingora Partners LLC bought a new stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. GAMMA Investing LLC purchased a new position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Mather Group LLC. purchased a new position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the first quarter worth about $29,000. Tennessee Valley Asset Management Partners purchased a new position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the fourth quarter worth about $34,000. Finally, Peoples Bank KS purchased a new position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the third quarter worth about $39,000. Institutional investors own 93.86% of the company's stock.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

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.