Capital World Investors Buys 182,540 Shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. $IONS

Capital World Investors lifted its position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS) by 1.5% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 12,722,728 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 182,540 shares during the quarter. Capital World Investors owned approximately 0.08% of Ionis Pharmaceuticals worth $832,321,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. bought a new stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $25,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 198.4% in the 3rd quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC now owns 376 shares of the company’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 250 shares during the period. Mather Group LLC. purchased a new position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the 3rd quarter valued at $27,000. Allworth Financial LP grew its position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 231.8% during the 2nd quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 740 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 517 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Meeder Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 620.2% in the third quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 713 shares of the company’s stock worth $47,000 after purchasing an additional 614 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.86% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on IONS shares. Morgan Stanley set a $95.00 price objective on Ionis Pharmaceuticals and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 25th. Barclays assumed coverage on Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a report on Wednesday, January 28th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $95.00 price target on the stock. Leerink Partners boosted their price objective on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $102.00 to $104.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Bank of America upped their price objective 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. Finally, TD Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Wednesday, December 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have given a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $89.00.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Stock Up 0.4%

Shares of NASDAQ IONS opened at $75.66 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.50 billion, a P/E ratio of -31.01 and a beta of 0.31. Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has a one year low of $23.95 and a one year high of $86.74. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $80.90 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $74.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.76, a current ratio of 3.83 and a quick ratio of 3.81.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 25th. The company reported ($1.41) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.23) by ($0.18). Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 68.82% and a negative net margin of 40.36%.The business had revenue of $203.33 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $156.07 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.66) earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 10.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post -3.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Ionis Pharmaceuticals

In other Ionis Pharmaceuticals news, EVP Shannon L. Devers sold 44,199 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.08, for a total transaction of $3,760,450.92. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 17,494 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,488,389.52. The trade was a 71.64% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Eric Swayze sold 23,463 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.12, for a total value of $1,856,392.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 30,453 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,409,441.36. The trade was a 43.52% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 596,652 shares of company stock valued at $48,059,821 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 2.71% of the company’s stock.

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.