Truist Financial Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL) Stock

Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL) had its price target hoisted by equities research analysts at Truist Financial from $52.00 to $54.00 in a note issued to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “hold” rating on the biotechnology company’s stock. Truist Financial’s price objective would suggest a potential downside of 7.60% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other research firms have also recently commented on EXEL. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Exelixis in a research note on Friday, September 11th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price objective on Exelixis from $43.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 7th. Zacks Research upgraded Exelixis from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 1st. Leerink Partners lowered Exelixis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and set a $52.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. Finally, Citigroup reiterated a “market outperform” rating on shares of Exelixis in a research note on Monday, September 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Exelixis presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $50.43.

Exelixis Price Performance

Exelixis stock opened at $58.44 on Wednesday. Exelixis has a 12-month low of $33.76 and a 12-month high of $61.14. The company has a market capitalization of $14.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 0.47. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $56.07 and its 200 day moving average price is $52.03.

Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 5th. The biotechnology company reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.85 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $628.69 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $636.40 million. Exelixis had a net margin of 35.33% and a return on equity of 42.17%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.75 EPS. Analysts forecast that Exelixis will post 3.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Exelixis

In other news, Director Mary Beckerle sold 9,812 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.66, for a total transaction of $526,511.92. Following the transaction, the director owned 16,079 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $862,799.14. This trade represents a 37.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders own 2.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Exelixis

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Exelixis in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,581,991,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Exelixis by 0.9% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,299,597 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $184,391,000 after acquiring an additional 39,920 shares in the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. lifted its stake in Exelixis by 1.7% during the first quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 3,388,920 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $145,351,000 after purchasing an additional 58,149 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its stake in Exelixis by 62.0% during the first quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 2,534,992 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $108,726,000 after purchasing an additional 970,144 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE boosted its holdings in Exelixis by 30.7% in the second quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 2,149,397 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $116,949,000 after purchasing an additional 504,660 shares during the period. 85.27% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Exelixis Company Profile

Exelixis, Inc is a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing, and commercializing medicines for cancer. The company’s research and development activities are centered primarily on targeted therapies and other treatments for solid tumors.

Exelixis’ principal product is cabozantinib, marketed in the United States as CABOMETYX tablets for certain patients with renal cell carcinoma, hepatocellular carcinoma, and differentiated thyroid cancer. The company also markets COMETRIQ, a cabozantinib formulation approved in the United States for progressive or metastatic medullary thyroid cancer.

Exelixis was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Alameda, California.