Scotiabank Begins Coverage on Exact Sciences (NASDAQ:EXAS)

Scotiabank started coverage on shares of Exact Sciences (NASDAQ:EXAS) in a report released on Thursday morning, MarketBeat reports. The firm issued a sector outperform rating and a $70.00 target price on the medical research company’s stock.

Several other research analysts have also recently weighed in on EXAS. BTIG Research cut their price target on shares of Exact Sciences from $80.00 to $70.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, June 26th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on Exact Sciences in a research report on Monday, June 3rd. They set a buy rating and a $75.00 price target for the company. Citigroup cut their price objective on Exact Sciences from $100.00 to $80.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 9th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group decreased their target price on Exact Sciences from $90.00 to $85.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 9th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Exact Sciences presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $87.86.

Exact Sciences Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ EXAS opened at $42.25 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 1.45 and a current ratio of 1.64. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $50.41 and its 200 day simple moving average is $60.16. The stock has a market cap of $7.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -32.01 and a beta of 1.26. Exact Sciences has a fifty-two week low of $40.62 and a fifty-two week high of $100.77.

Exact Sciences (NASDAQ:EXAS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 8th. The medical research company reported ($0.50) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of ($0.50). Exact Sciences had a negative return on equity of 7.12% and a negative net margin of 9.48%. The business had revenue of $637.52 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $624.95 million. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Exact Sciences will post -1.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Kevin T. Conroy sold 1,155 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.15, for a total value of $69,473.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,156,191 shares in the company, valued at $69,544,888.65. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Over the last three months, insiders sold 1,498 shares of company stock worth $90,105. 1.36% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Exact Sciences

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of EXAS. American Trust bought a new stake in Exact Sciences during the first quarter worth about $208,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Exact Sciences by 92.4% during the 1st quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 708 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $49,000 after buying an additional 340 shares in the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale lifted its position in Exact Sciences by 41.3% in the 1st quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 58,116 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $3,918,000 after buying an additional 16,980 shares during the last quarter. EULAV Asset Management boosted its stake in Exact Sciences by 23.7% in the first quarter. EULAV Asset Management now owns 318,000 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $21,961,000 after buying an additional 61,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Advisors LLC grew its position in Exact Sciences by 518.8% during the first quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 39,147 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $2,703,000 after acquiring an additional 32,821 shares during the last quarter. 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.