Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL) Price Target Raised to $78.00

Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL) had its price target upped by HC Wainwright from $56.00 to $78.00 in a research report released on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. HC Wainwright currently has a buy rating on the biotechnology company’s stock.

A number of other research firms have also recently weighed in on EXEL. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Exelixis from $40.00 to $49.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, July 13th. Zacks Research raised Exelixis from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 1st. UBS Group set a $55.00 target price on Exelixis in a research report on Monday, August 3rd. Leerink Partners cut Exelixis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and set a $52.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Finally, Citizens Jmp increased their price target on Exelixis from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $58.38.

Exelixis Trading Up 0.6%

NASDAQ EXEL opened at $72.75 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $17.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.78, a PEG ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 0.45. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $60.38 and its 200-day simple moving average is $51.32. Exelixis has a 52 week low of $38.19 and a 52 week high of $73.44.

Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 29th. The biotechnology company reported $0.94 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89 by $0.05. Exelixis had a net margin of 35.45% and a return on equity of 45.54%. The business had revenue of $658.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $646.51 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.78 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 10.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Exelixis will post 3.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Exelixis news, Director Mary Beckerle sold 9,812 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.66, for a total transaction of $526,511.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 16,079 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $862,799.14. This trade represents a 37.90% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 2.60% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Exelixis

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in shares of Exelixis in the 2nd quarter worth about $1,581,991,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Exelixis by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,299,597 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $184,391,000 after buying an additional 39,920 shares during the period. Assetmark Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Exelixis by 1.7% in the 1st quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 3,388,920 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $145,351,000 after buying an additional 58,149 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP grew its position in shares of Exelixis by 62.0% during the 1st quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 2,534,992 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $108,726,000 after buying an additional 970,144 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its position in shares of Exelixis by 21.5% during the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 2,427,976 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $140,677,000 after buying an additional 429,505 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.27% of the company’s stock.

About Exelixis

Exelixis, Inc is a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing, and commercializing medicines for cancer and other serious diseases. The company’s research programs center primarily on targeted therapies, including treatments designed to inhibit signaling pathways involved in tumor growth and progression.

Exelixis’ lead product is CABOMETYX (cabozantinib), an oral medicine approved in the United States for certain patients with renal cell carcinoma, hepatocellular carcinoma, and differentiated thyroid cancer.