Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS) has been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-one research firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $101.80.

IONS has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $125.00 target price on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. Raymond James Financial initiated coverage on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Friday, April 10th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $104.00 target price on the stock. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $73.00 to $77.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC increased their price target on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $103.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 25th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ionis Pharmaceuticals

In other Ionis Pharmaceuticals news, EVP Holly B. Kordasiewicz sold 60,846 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.41, for a total transaction of $4,466,704.86. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 22,458 shares in the company, valued at $1,648,641.78. This trade represents a 73.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Spencer R. Berthelsen sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.49, for a total transaction of $587,920.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 156,013 shares in the company, valued at $11,465,395.37. The trade was a 4.88% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last three months, insiders sold 93,914 shares of company stock valued at $6,941,424. 1.81% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Grandfield & Dodd LLC lifted its holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Grandfield & Dodd LLC now owns 37,821 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,992,000 after purchasing an additional 146 shares in the last quarter. Checchi Capital Advisers LLC lifted its holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 3.7% in the 1st quarter. Checchi Capital Advisers LLC now owns 4,429 shares of the company’s stock worth $333,000 after purchasing an additional 157 shares in the last quarter. Wedmont Private Capital lifted its holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 5,536 shares of the company’s stock worth $460,000 after purchasing an additional 173 shares in the last quarter. Prospera Financial Services Inc lifted its holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 3.9% in the 4th quarter. Prospera Financial Services Inc now owns 4,759 shares of the company’s stock worth $376,000 after purchasing an additional 178 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MetLife Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 2.6% in the 4th quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 9,674 shares of the company’s stock worth $765,000 after purchasing an additional 246 shares in the last quarter. 93.86% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of IONS opened at $75.99 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $74.88 and its 200 day simple moving average is $77.39. The company has a market capitalization of $12.56 billion, a P/E ratio of -36.71 and a beta of 0.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.75, a current ratio of 4.10 and a quick ratio of 4.09. Ionis Pharmaceuticals has a 1-year low of $37.32 and a 1-year high of $86.74.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported ($0.56) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.85) by $0.29. The business had revenue of $246.09 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $195.57 million. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative net margin of 30.91% and a negative return on equity of 58.65%. Ionis Pharmaceuticals’s quarterly revenue was up 86.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted ($0.93) earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Ionis Pharmaceuticals will post -3.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc is a biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of RNA-targeted therapies designed to modulate gene expression. The company’s proprietary antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) technology enables the selective binding of short synthetic strands of nucleic acids to messenger RNA (mRNA), thereby inhibiting or altering the production of disease-causing proteins. Ionis’ pipeline spans a range of therapeutic areas, including neurological disorders, cardiovascular conditions, metabolic diseases and rare genetic disorders.

Since its founding in 1989 by Dr.