Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS) Short Interest Update

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS) was the recipient of a large drop in short interest in the month of April. As of April 30th, there was short interest totalling 8,750,000 shares, a drop of 8.2% from the April 15th total of 9,530,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 1,080,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 8.1 days. Currently, 6.5% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Joseph Baroldi sold 4,006 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.60, for a total value of $166,649.60. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 19,631 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $816,649.60. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, EVP Joseph Baroldi sold 4,006 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.60, for a total transaction of $166,649.60. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 19,631 shares in the company, valued at approximately $816,649.60. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Joseph Klein III sold 6,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.71, for a total value of $256,260.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 16,346 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $698,137.66. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 2.65% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ionis Pharmaceuticals

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in IONS. GAMMA Investing LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Pingora Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. Mather Group LLC. bought a new stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the first quarter worth $29,000. Tennessee Valley Asset Management Partners acquired a new position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the fourth quarter valued at $34,000. Finally, Sunbelt Securities Inc. bought a new position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the first quarter valued at about $44,000. Institutional investors own 93.86% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently commented on IONS. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $60.00 price target on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Wednesday, May 8th. StockNews.com raised shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 1st. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded Ionis Pharmaceuticals from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $58.00 target price on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $59.54.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Stock Down 2.6 %

IONS stock traded down $0.99 during trading on Friday, hitting $36.63. 533,978 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,136,555. Ionis Pharmaceuticals has a one year low of $35.92 and a one year high of $54.44. The company has a current ratio of 7.37, a quick ratio of 7.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.15. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $42.01 and a 200 day simple moving average of $46.59.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The company reported ($0.98) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.10) by $0.12. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative net margin of 49.49% and a negative return on equity of 107.64%. The company had revenue of $119.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $131.42 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($0.87) earnings per share. Ionis Pharmaceuticals’s quarterly revenue was down 9.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Ionis Pharmaceuticals will post -3.96 EPS for the current year.

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.