Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) Director Sells $2,262,960.00 in Stock

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS) Director Joseph Wender sold 28,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.82, for a total value of $2,262,960.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 36,035 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,912,348.70. This represents a 43.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Trading Down 0.2%

NASDAQ:IONS opened at $81.68 on Friday. Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has a 1 year low of $23.95 and a 1 year high of $83.61. The stock has a market cap of $13.23 billion, a P/E ratio of -48.33 and a beta of 0.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 2.78 and a current ratio of 2.79. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $73.59 and a 200-day simple moving average of $54.41.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The company reported ($0.80) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($1.15) by $0.35. The firm had revenue of $156.72 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $131.75 million. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 44.26% and a negative net margin of 26.45%.The firm’s revenue was up 17.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned ($0.95) earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post -3.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd purchased a new position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the third quarter worth about $447,000. BlueCrest Capital Management Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,529,000. Alpine Global Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 119.8% during the 3rd quarter. Alpine Global Management LLC now owns 55,900 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,657,000 after acquiring an additional 30,463 shares during the period. Tweedy Browne Co LLC boosted its position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 0.3% in the third quarter. Tweedy Browne Co LLC now owns 2,901,216 shares of the company’s stock worth $189,798,000 after acquiring an additional 9,268 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Coldstream Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the third quarter worth approximately $293,000. 93.86% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on IONS shares. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $83.00 to $96.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 2nd. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $43.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, October 6th. BMO Capital Markets raised Ionis Pharmaceuticals from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the company from $40.00 to $70.00 in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $77.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have assigned a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ionis Pharmaceuticals has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $84.15.

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.