20,436 Shares in Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. $IONS Acquired by Readystate Asset Management LP

Readystate Asset Management LP bought a new position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS) in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm bought 20,436 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,535,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Empowered Funds LLC raised its holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 318.1% during the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 103,141 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,745,000 after purchasing an additional 78,470 shares in the last quarter. Eversept Partners LP lifted its position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 17.4% during the 1st quarter. Eversept Partners LP now owns 632,100 shares of the company’s stock worth $47,464,000 after buying an additional 93,882 shares during the last quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP boosted its holdings in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 17.1% in the 1st quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 55,502 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,168,000 after buying an additional 8,124 shares in the last quarter. Entropy Technologies LP acquired a new position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the 1st quarter valued at $2,043,000. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 36.6% in the 1st quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 305,549 shares of the company’s stock valued at $22,944,000 after buying an additional 81,942 shares during the last quarter. 93.86% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Eric Swayze sold 10,602 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.18, for a total transaction of $839,466.36. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 21,759 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,722,877.62. This trade represents a 32.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Brett P. Monia sold 50,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.59, for a total value of $4,029,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 245,571 shares in the company, valued at $19,790,566.89. This trade represents a 16.92% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 233,163 shares of company stock valued at $18,316,551 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 1.81% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

IONS has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Friday, July 17th. Bank of America upped their price objective 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. Wolfe Research reaffirmed a “peer perform” rating on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Canaccord Genuity Group cut their target price on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $110.00 to $95.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 10th. Finally, TD Cowen reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $108.00 target price on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a report on Monday, June 15th. Eighteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $95.90.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

Shares of IONS opened at $55.30 on Wednesday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $70.90 and its 200-day simple moving average is $75.12. The firm has a market cap of $9.14 billion, a PE ratio of -26.71 and a beta of 0.36. Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has a 12-month low of $40.03 and a 12-month high of $86.74. The company has a current ratio of 4.10, a quick ratio of 4.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.75.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported ($0.56) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.85) by $0.29. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative net margin of 30.91% and a negative return on equity of 58.65%. The firm had revenue of $246.09 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $195.56 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.93) EPS. Ionis Pharmaceuticals’s revenue for the quarter was up 86.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post -3.76 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.