Brokerages Set Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS) Price Target at $92.84

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty brokerages that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have assigned a hold recommendation, sixteen have issued a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $92.8421.

A number of brokerages have commented on IONS. Wells Fargo & Company raised 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. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $86.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 9th. Leerink Partners raised their price target on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $102.00 to $104.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Morgan Stanley set a $95.00 price objective on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 25th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Wednesday, February 25th.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Eugene Schneider sold 5,812 shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.97, for a total transaction of $412,477.64. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 63,890 shares in the company, valued at $4,534,273.30. The trade was a 8.34% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Shannon L. Devers sold 6,193 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.05, for a total value of $458,591.65. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 16,348 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,210,569.40. The trade was a 27.47% 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 quarter, insiders have sold 1,018,612 shares of company stock valued at $79,094,446. 2.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Ionis Pharmaceuticals

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Grandfield & Dodd LLC increased its stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Grandfield & Dodd LLC now owns 37,821 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,992,000 after purchasing an additional 146 shares during the last quarter. CWM LLC boosted its holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 7.3% in the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 2,488 shares of the company’s stock worth $163,000 after purchasing an additional 170 shares in the last quarter. Wedmont Private Capital boosted its holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 5,536 shares of the company’s stock worth $460,000 after purchasing an additional 173 shares in the last quarter. Prospera Financial Services Inc increased its position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. Prospera Financial Services Inc now owns 4,759 shares of the company’s stock worth $376,000 after buying an additional 178 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MetLife Investment Management LLC increased its position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 9,674 shares of the company’s stock worth $765,000 after buying an additional 246 shares during the last quarter. 93.86% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

NASDAQ IONS opened at $74.79 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $78.45 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $76.23. 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 twelve month low of $23.95 and a twelve month high of $86.74. The stock has a market cap of $12.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -30.65 and a beta of 0.40.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The company reported ($1.41) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($1.23) by ($0.18). The business had revenue of $203.33 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $156.07 million. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 68.82% and a negative net margin of 40.36%.The business’s quarterly revenue was down 10.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned ($0.66) EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Ionis Pharmaceuticals will post -3.5 EPS for the current year.

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.