Needham & Company LLC Reiterates “Buy” Rating for Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS)

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reiterated by investment analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a research note issued on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $60.00 price target on the stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price target indicates a potential upside of 46.59% from the company’s current price.

Several other analysts also recently weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 1st. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted their target price on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $72.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $57.67.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Trading Down 3.2 %

IONS opened at $40.93 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.18, a current ratio of 5.90 and a quick ratio of 5.83. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $42.86 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $46.92. Ionis Pharmaceuticals has a 1-year low of $34.79 and a 1-year high of $54.44. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -15.99 and a beta of 0.41.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The company reported ($0.98) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($1.10) by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $119.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $131.42 million. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative net margin of 46.32% and a negative return on equity of 90.29%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 9.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned ($0.87) EPS. Analysts expect that Ionis Pharmaceuticals will post -3.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Joseph Baroldi sold 4,006 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $41.60, for a total value of $166,649.60. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 19,631 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $816,649.60. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In related news, EVP Joseph Baroldi sold 4,006 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $41.60, for a total transaction of $166,649.60. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 19,631 shares in the company, valued at $816,649.60. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Joseph Klein III sold 6,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.71, for a total value of $256,260.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 16,346 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $698,137.66. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 10,393 shares of company stock worth $440,127. 2.65% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of IONS. Pingora Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. GAMMA Investing LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Mather Group LLC. acquired a new stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the 1st quarter valued at about $29,000. Tennessee Valley Asset Management Partners purchased a new position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the 4th quarter worth approximately $34,000. Finally, Peoples Bank KS acquired a new position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the third quarter worth approximately $39,000. 93.86% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.