Holly Kordasiewicz Sells 60,846 Shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) Stock

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS) EVP Holly Kordasiewicz sold 60,846 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.41, for a total transaction of $4,466,704.86. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 22,458 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,648,641.78. This trade represents a 73.04% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:IONS traded down $0.87 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $73.09. The company had a trading volume of 1,801,390 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,053,600. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $74.92 and its 200 day moving average price is $77.71. The company has a current ratio of 4.10, a quick ratio of 4.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.75. The stock has a market cap of $12.08 billion, a P/E ratio of -35.31 and a beta of 0.37. Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has a 52-week low of $34.84 and a 52-week high of $86.74.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported ($0.56) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.85) by $0.29. The business had revenue of $246.09 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $195.57 million. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative net margin of 30.91% and a negative return on equity of 58.65%. The company’s revenue was up 86.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.93) earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post -3.64 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ionis Pharmaceuticals

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of IONS. Jain Global LLC lifted its stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 3,037.4% during the 3rd quarter. Jain Global LLC now owns 225,739 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,768,000 after acquiring an additional 218,544 shares during the period. DAVENPORT & Co LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 248.3% in the fourth quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 217,897 shares of the company’s stock worth $17,238,000 after acquiring an additional 155,334 shares during the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 230.4% during the 3rd quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 878,155 shares of the company’s stock worth $57,449,000 after acquiring an additional 612,362 shares during the period. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ raised its position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 161.3% during the 3rd quarter. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ now owns 155,790 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,192,000 after buying an additional 96,164 shares during the period. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC raised its position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 548.7% in the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 33,409 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,643,000 after purchasing an additional 28,259 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.86% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

IONS has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Piper Sandler increased their price target on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $87.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $100.00 to $111.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $106.00 to $115.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Raymond James Financial began coverage on Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Friday, April 10th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $104.00 price objective for the company. Finally, HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $125.00 price objective on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a report on Wednesday, May 27th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have assigned a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Ionis Pharmaceuticals currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $100.90.

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.