Joseph Klein III Sells 6,000 Shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS) Stock

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS) Director Joseph Klein III sold 6,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.71, for a total transaction of $256,260.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 16,346 shares in the company, valued at approximately $698,137.66. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

IONS opened at $40.16 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $5.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -15.69 and a beta of 0.41. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $42.74 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $46.87. Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has a 1-year low of $34.79 and a 1-year high of $54.44. The company has a current ratio of 5.90, a quick ratio of 5.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.18.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The company reported ($0.98) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($1.10) by $0.12. The business had revenue of $119.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $131.42 million. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative net margin of 46.32% and a negative return on equity of 90.29%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 9.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned ($0.87) EPS. On average, analysts expect that Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post -3.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ionis Pharmaceuticals

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 162.2% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 4,616,978 shares of the company’s stock valued at $233,573,000 after acquiring an additional 2,856,353 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the fourth quarter valued at about $59,288,000. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. bought a new position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the third quarter valued at about $48,399,000. California Public Employees Retirement System lifted its position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 154.5% during the third quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 655,371 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,728,000 after purchasing an additional 397,897 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Groupama Asset Managment purchased a new position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the fourth quarter worth about $18,068,000. Institutional investors own 93.86% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $60.00 price objective on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Wednesday. StockNews.com raised Ionis Pharmaceuticals from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 24th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $85.00 to $82.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their price target on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $59.54.

About Ionis Pharmaceuticals

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc discovers and develops RNA-targeted therapeutics in the United States. The company offers SPINRAZA for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) in pediatric and adult patients; TEGSEDI, an antisense injection for the treatment of polyneuropathy caused by hereditary transthyretin amyloidosis in adults; and WAYLIVRA, an antisense medicine for treatment for familial chylomicronemia syndrome (FCS) and familial partial lipodystrophy.