Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (IONS) Given Consensus Rating of “Hold” by Analysts

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the sixteen research firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $46.44.

IONS has been the topic of several research reports. TheStreet raised Ionis Pharmaceuticals from a “d+” rating to a “c-” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 5th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $59.00 target price on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Friday, June 2nd. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $64.00 target price on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Wednesday, May 17th. Leerink Swann reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $45.00 price target (down previously from $47.00) on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Wednesday, May 17th. Finally, Piper Jaffray Companies set a $51.00 price target on Ionis Pharmaceuticals and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 10th.

Shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) traded up 0.876% during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $51.225. The stock had a trading volume of 515,812 shares. Ionis Pharmaceuticals has a one year low of $24.58 and a one year high of $60.01. The firm’s market cap is $6.35 billion. The company has a 50-day moving average of $53.06 and a 200 day moving average of $46.75.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 9th. The company reported $0.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.10) by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $110.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $86.03 million. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 14.61% and a negative net margin of 4.80%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 199.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned ($0.52) earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Ionis Pharmaceuticals will post ($0.15) earnings per share for the current year.

In other Ionis Pharmaceuticals news, Chairman Stanley T. Crooke sold 11,000 shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.35, for a total transaction of $608,850.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now owns 48,014 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,657,574.90. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP C Frank Bennett sold 10,000 shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.29, for a total value of $592,900.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 25,041 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,484,680.89. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 54,379 shares of company stock valued at $2,946,052. Corporate insiders own 1.86% of the company’s stock.

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. purchased a new position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the first quarter valued at approximately $138,000. Westpac Banking Corp purchased a new position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the first quarter valued at approximately $171,000. Cheyne Capital Management UK LLP purchased a new position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the second quarter valued at approximately $249,000. Capstone Asset Management Co. boosted its position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 10.3% in the first quarter. Capstone Asset Management Co. now owns 5,148 shares of the company’s stock valued at $207,000 after buying an additional 480 shares in the last quarter. Finally, World Asset Management Inc boosted its position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 27.3% in the first quarter. World Asset Management Inc now owns 5,427 shares of the company’s stock valued at $218,000 after buying an additional 1,163 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.82% of the company’s stock.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc is engaged in discovering and developing ribonucleic acid (RNA)-targeted therapeutics. The Company, using its drug discovery platform, has developed a pipeline of drugs for patients with unmet medical needs. The Company’s segments include Ionis Core and Akcea Therapeutics. In the Ionis Core segment, the Company is engaged in exploiting a drug discovery platform to generate a pipeline of drugs for the Company and its partners.