Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL) Downgraded to "Hold" Rating by Wall Street Zen

Key Points

• Exelixis has been downgraded from a "buy" to a "hold" rating by Wall Street Zen, indicating a shift in analyst sentiment towards the stock.
• Despite the downgrade, JMP Securities and Barclays have expressed more favorable ratings, reaffirming a "market outperform" rating and raising the price target to $40.00, respectively.
• Exelixis reported a quarterly earnings per share (EPS) of $0.75, beating expectations, but experienced a 10.8% decline in revenue compared to the previous year.

Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL - Get Free Report) was downgraded by analysts at Wall Street Zen from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report issued on Saturday.

Several other research firms have also recently issued reports on EXEL. William Blair reiterated an "outperform" rating on shares of Exelixis in a research report on Tuesday, July 29th. Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their price objective on shares of Exelixis from $50.00 to $45.00 and set a "sector perform" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 29th. Truist Financial cut their target price on shares of Exelixis from $56.00 to $49.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 29th. Stephens raised shares of Exelixis from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and raised their target price for the company from $29.00 to $60.00 in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Finally, HC Wainwright cut their target price on shares of Exelixis from $53.00 to $46.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, August 12th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $44.06.

Exelixis Stock Performance

Shares of Exelixis stock traded up $0.61 on Friday, hitting $37.57. 73,445 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,008,588. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.77 and a beta of 0.32. Exelixis has a 52 week low of $25.12 and a 52 week high of $49.62. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $40.84 and a 200 day simple moving average of $39.51.

Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 28th. The biotechnology company reported $0.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.63 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $568.26 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $574.36 million. Exelixis had a net margin of 27.01% and a return on equity of 27.47%. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.84 earnings per share. Exelixis has set its FY 2025 guidance at EPS. Research analysts expect that Exelixis will post 2.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Exelixis

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in EXEL. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Exelixis in the first quarter valued at $123,310,000. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Exelixis by 73.8% in the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 6,893,889 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $250,869,000 after acquiring an additional 2,926,884 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Exelixis in the second quarter valued at $122,099,000. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd raised its stake in shares of Exelixis by 120.5% in the second quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 3,047,222 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $134,306,000 after acquiring an additional 1,665,110 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Exelixis by 40.2% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,572,189 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $205,725,000 after acquiring an additional 1,596,948 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.27% of the company's stock.

About Exelixis

Exelixis, Inc, an oncology company, focuses on the discovery, development, and commercialization of new medicines for difficult-to-treat cancers in the United States. The company offers CABOMETYX tablets for the treatment of patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma who received prior anti-angiogenic therapy; and COMETRIQ capsules for the treatment of progressive and metastatic medullary thyroid cancer.