Spencer Berthelsen Sells 8,000 Shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) Stock

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS) Director Spencer Berthelsen sold 8,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.49, for a total value of $587,920.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 156,013 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,465,395.37. This represents a 4.88% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Price Performance

Ionis Pharmaceuticals stock opened at $74.31 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.75, a quick ratio of 4.09 and a current ratio of 4.10. The firm has a market cap of $12.28 billion, a P/E ratio of -35.90 and a beta of 0.37. The business’s fifty day moving average is $74.89 and its two-hundred day moving average is $77.59. Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has a 52 week low of $36.11 and a 52 week high of $86.74.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported ($0.56) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.85) by $0.29. The company had revenue of $246.09 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $195.57 million. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 58.65% and a negative net margin of 30.91%.The business’s revenue was up 86.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.93) earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post -3.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ionis Pharmaceuticals

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in IONS. Capital World Investors increased its stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 41.2% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,961,299 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,420,918,000 after buying an additional 5,238,571 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 19,941.6% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,321,345 shares of the company’s stock valued at $104,532,000 after buying an additional 1,314,752 shares during the period. Baker BROS. Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 216.1% in the 4th quarter. Baker BROS. Advisors LP now owns 1,791,841 shares of the company’s stock valued at $141,753,000 after buying an additional 1,225,043 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP increased its stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 7,219.3% in the 3rd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 958,829 shares of the company’s stock valued at $62,727,000 after buying an additional 945,729 shares during the period. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 190.3% in the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,372,225 shares of the company’s stock worth $89,771,000 after purchasing an additional 899,476 shares during the last quarter. 93.86% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on IONS shares. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $73.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Wall Street Zen raised Ionis Pharmaceuticals from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 2nd. TD Cowen reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $108.00 price objective on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Monday. HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $125.00 target price on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $95.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. Two equities 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $101.80.

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.