Investors Buy High Volume of Ionis Pharmaceuticals Call Options (NASDAQ:IONS)

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS) saw unusually large options trading on Thursday. Traders purchased 5,344 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 98% compared to the typical volume of 2,703 call options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Wall Street Zen downgraded Ionis Pharmaceuticals from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, August 1st. Raymond James Financial set a $87.00 price objective on Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a report on Thursday, July 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $72.00 to $76.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 3rd. Leerink Partners increased their target price on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $122.00 to $129.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 25th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “neutral” rating and set a $69.00 target price on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. Seventeen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $94.15.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Brett P. Monia sold 50,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.59, for a total value of $4,029,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 245,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,790,566.89. This represents a 16.92% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP Holly B. Kordasiewicz sold 362 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.30, for a total transaction of $30,516.60. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 22,096 shares in the company, valued at $1,862,692.80. This represents a 1.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 233,163 shares of company stock worth $18,316,551 over the last quarter. Insiders own 1.81% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ionis Pharmaceuticals

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. bought a new position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the 1st quarter valued at $30,000. Quarry LP acquired a new stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the 3rd quarter valued at $38,000. Allworth Financial LP bought a new position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the second quarter worth $41,000. Finally, Silvant Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the second quarter worth $43,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.86% of the company’s stock.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Stock Down 2.4%

Shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals stock traded down $1.48 on Thursday, reaching $59.32. 241,517 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,414,089. The company has a market capitalization of $9.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -17.17 and a beta of 0.41. The company has a current ratio of 7.89, a quick ratio of 7.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.07. Ionis Pharmaceuticals has a one year low of $41.71 and a one year high of $86.74. The company has a 50-day moving average of $64.77 and a 200 day moving average of $72.41.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The company reported ($0.69) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($1.08) by $0.39. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative net margin of 64.76% and a negative return on equity of 111.08%. The business had revenue of $267.95 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $189.10 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.70 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 40.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Ionis Pharmaceuticals will post -3.57 earnings per share for the current 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.