Needham & Company LLC Issues Positive Forecast for Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) Stock Price

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) had its target price increased by investment analysts at Needham & Company LLC from $103.00 to $105.00 in a note issued to investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “buy” rating on the stock. Needham & Company LLC’s target price points to a potential upside of 43.21% from the company’s current price.

IONS has been the subject of several other research reports. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $73.00 to $77.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Morgan Stanley set a $95.00 target price on Ionis Pharmaceuticals and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 25th. Leerink Partners upped their price target on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $102.00 to $104.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $82.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have issued a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $89.60.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:IONS traded up $3.64 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $73.32. The stock had a trading volume of 932,210 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,302,085. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.76, a quick ratio of 3.81 and a current ratio of 3.83. Ionis Pharmaceuticals has a 1-year low of $23.95 and a 1-year high of $86.74. The stock has a market cap of $12.11 billion, a PE ratio of -29.92 and a beta of 0.31. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $79.17 and a 200-day moving average price of $75.59.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 25th. The company reported ($1.41) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.23) by ($0.18). The firm had revenue of $203.33 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $156.07 million. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative net margin of 40.36% and a negative return on equity of 68.82%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted ($0.66) EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Ionis Pharmaceuticals will post -3.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Ionis Pharmaceuticals

In other news, CEO Brett P. Monia sold 126,670 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.20, for a total transaction of $9,525,584.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 242,662 shares in the company, valued at $18,248,182.40. This trade represents a 34.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP C Frank Bennett sold 85,089 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $82.93, for a total value of $7,056,430.77. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 80,293 shares in the company, valued at $6,658,698.49. This represents a 51.45% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 1,035,882 shares of company stock worth $80,492,247. 2.71% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Ionis Pharmaceuticals

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. purchased a new stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $25,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 198.4% during the third quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC now owns 376 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 250 shares during the period. Mather Group LLC. acquired a new stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the third quarter valued at $27,000. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. purchased a new position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the fourth quarter valued at $27,000. Finally, Quarry LP purchased a new stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the 3rd quarter worth about $38,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.86% 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.