ARK Investment Management LLC Sells 269,103 Shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. $IONS

ARK Investment Management LLC lessened its holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS) by 29.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 631,215 shares of the company’s stock after selling 269,103 shares during the period. ARK Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals were worth $41,294,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. CWM LLC increased its position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 7.3% during the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 2,488 shares of the company’s stock valued at $163,000 after acquiring an additional 170 shares during the last quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 198.4% during the 3rd quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC now owns 376 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 250 shares in the last quarter. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. bought a new stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. Mather Group LLC. bought a new position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $27,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 44.2% in the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,341 shares of the company’s stock valued at $88,000 after buying an additional 411 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.86% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have issued reports on IONS. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a report on Wednesday, February 25th. Wall Street Zen cut Ionis Pharmaceuticals from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 28th. Piper Sandler increased their price target on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $87.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 27th. Leerink Partners lifted their price objective on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $102.00 to $104.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have assigned a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ionis Pharmaceuticals has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $89.00.

Insider Transactions at Ionis Pharmaceuticals

In other Ionis Pharmaceuticals news, EVP Eric Swayze sold 15,642 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.76, for a total value of $1,278,889.92. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 32,105 shares in the company, valued at $2,624,904.80. This represents a 32.76% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP C Frank Bennett sold 85,089 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $82.93, for a total transaction of $7,056,430.77. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 80,293 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,658,698.49. The trade was a 51.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 436,579 shares of company stock valued at $35,367,233. 2.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

NASDAQ:IONS opened at $79.45 on Thursday. Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $23.95 and a fifty-two week high of $86.74. The company has a fifty day moving average of $81.29 and a two-hundred day moving average of $72.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.76, a quick ratio of 3.81 and a current ratio of 3.83. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.12 billion, a PE ratio of -32.56 and a beta of 0.31.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The company reported ($1.41) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($1.23) by ($0.18). Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative net margin of 40.36% and a negative return on equity of 68.82%. The firm had revenue of $203.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $156.07 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned ($0.66) EPS. The business’s revenue was down 10.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post -3.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Ionis Pharmaceuticals

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.