25,886 Shares in Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. $IONS Acquired by Florida Financial Advisors LLC

Florida Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 25,886 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,944,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. DAVENPORT & Co LLC grew its holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 248.3% during the fourth quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 217,897 shares of the company’s stock valued at $17,238,000 after purchasing an additional 155,334 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC raised its holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 548.7% in the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 33,409 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,643,000 after purchasing an additional 28,259 shares during the period. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 51.7% in the fourth quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 42,394 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,354,000 after purchasing an additional 14,455 shares during the period. J. Safra Sarasin Holding AG bought a new position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the fourth quarter worth $1,377,000. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 19,941.6% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,321,345 shares of the company’s stock worth $104,532,000 after purchasing an additional 1,314,752 shares in the last quarter. 93.86% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

IONS has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Leerink Partners upped their price objective on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $122.00 to $129.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 25th. TD Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $108.00 target price on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a report on Monday, June 15th. Bank of America boosted their target price on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $100.00 to $111.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $113.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Finally, Raymond James Financial set a $87.00 price target on Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. Eighteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $96.05.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Trading Down 2.6%

Shares of NASDAQ:IONS opened at $52.95 on Tuesday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $73.27 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $76.17. Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has a one year low of $40.03 and a one year high of $86.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.75, a current ratio of 4.10 and a quick ratio of 4.09. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.75 billion, a PE ratio of -25.58 and a beta of 0.36.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported ($0.56) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.85) by $0.29. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 58.65% and a negative net margin of 30.91%.The company had revenue of $246.09 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $195.56 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned ($0.93) EPS. Ionis Pharmaceuticals’s revenue for the quarter was up 86.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post -3.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Holly B. Kordasiewicz sold 60,846 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.41, for a total transaction of $4,466,704.86. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 22,458 shares in the company, valued at $1,648,641.78. This represents a 73.04% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP Eugene Schneider sold 26,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.05, for a total value of $2,107,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 77,114 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,250,089.70. The trade was a 25.21% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 233,163 shares of company stock valued at $18,316,551. Corporate insiders own 1.81% of the company’s stock.

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.