Bank of America Boosts Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) Price Target to $97.00

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) had its target price boosted by equities researchers at Bank of America from $86.00 to $97.00 in a report issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “buy” rating on the stock. Bank of America‘s target price indicates a potential upside of 23.36% from the stock’s current price.

Several other research firms also recently commented on IONS. HC Wainwright lifted their target price on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $100.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $83.00 to $96.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 2nd. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $40.00 to $70.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $84.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Guggenheim lifted their target price on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $90.00 to $92.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have assigned a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ionis Pharmaceuticals presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $84.85.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Trading Down 0.3%

Shares of IONS stock opened at $78.63 on Tuesday. Ionis Pharmaceuticals has a twelve month low of $23.95 and a twelve month high of $83.61. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $74.47 and its 200 day simple moving average is $55.52. The company has a quick ratio of 2.78, a current ratio of 2.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.74 billion, a P/E ratio of -46.53 and a beta of 0.30.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The company reported ($0.80) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.15) by $0.35. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 44.26% and a negative net margin of 26.45%.The firm had revenue of $156.72 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $131.75 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted ($0.95) earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Ionis Pharmaceuticals will post -3.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Ionis Pharmaceuticals

In related news, EVP Patrick R. O’neil sold 64,664 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.69, for a total transaction of $4,377,106.16. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 57,130 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,867,129.70. This represents a 53.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Richard S. Geary sold 89,249 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.11, for a total transaction of $6,703,492.39. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 59,657 shares in the company, valued at $4,480,837.27. This represents a 59.94% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 506,566 shares of company stock worth $35,854,552 over the last ninety days. 2.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd bought a new stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the third quarter worth $447,000. BlueCrest Capital Management Ltd purchased a new position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the 3rd quarter worth $1,529,000. Alpine Global Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 119.8% in 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 in the last quarter. Tweedy Browne Co LLC raised its holdings 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 valued at $189,798,000 after purchasing an additional 9,268 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Coldstream Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the third quarter valued at about $293,000. Institutional investors own 93.86% of the company’s stock.

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.