Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL) Hits New 1-Year High Following Analyst Upgrade

Exelixis, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXEL)’s share price reached a new 52-week high on Tuesday after Citizens Jmp raised their price target on the stock from $55.00 to $65.00. Citizens Jmp currently has a market outperform rating on the stock. Exelixis traded as high as $63.79 and last traded at $63.6180, with a volume of 62,485 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $62.68.

A number of other equities analysts have also issued reports on EXEL. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Exelixis from $50.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Leerink Partners cut Exelixis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and set a $52.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on Exelixis from $47.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $56.00 price objective on shares of Exelixis in a report on Thursday, July 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Exelixis from $40.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, July 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $51.50.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Exelixis news, Director Mary Beckerle sold 9,812 shares of Exelixis 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 sale, the director owned 16,079 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $862,799.14. The trade was a 37.90% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Corporate insiders own 2.60% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Exelixis

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Arkadios Wealth Advisors purchased a new position in shares of Exelixis during the 1st quarter worth approximately $476,000. Corient Private Wealth LP acquired a new stake in Exelixis in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $4,324,000. L2 Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Exelixis in the second quarter valued at approximately $6,839,000. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in Exelixis in the second quarter valued at approximately $1,581,991,000. Finally, JLB & Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in Exelixis in the second quarter valued at approximately $2,658,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.27% of the company’s stock.

Exelixis Price Performance

The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $57.09 and a 200 day simple moving average of $53.09. The company has a market capitalization of $15.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.99, a PEG ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 0.47.

Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 5th. The biotechnology company reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.85 by $0.06. Exelixis had a return on equity of 42.17% and a net margin of 35.33%. The business had revenue of $628.69 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $636.40 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.75 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 10.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict that Exelixis, Inc. will post 3.19 EPS for the current year.

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.