Exact Sciences (NASDAQ:EXAS) Shares Gap Down After Analyst Downgrade

Exact Sciences Co. (NASDAQ:EXAS) shares gapped down before the market opened on Thursday after Barclays lowered their price target on the stock from $70.00 to $65.00. The stock had previously closed at $50.48, but opened at $48.00. Barclays currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Exact Sciences shares last traded at $47.98, with a volume of 1,127,056 shares changing hands.

A number of other research analysts have also commented on the stock. TD Cowen boosted their price target on shares of Exact Sciences from $82.00 to $86.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Exact Sciences in a report on Monday, January 13th. Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $65.00 price objective on shares of Exact Sciences in a report on Monday, January 13th. Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on shares of Exact Sciences from $85.00 to $75.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Evercore ISI dropped their price objective on shares of Exact Sciences from $80.00 to $60.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Exact Sciences presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $72.06.

Institutional Trading of Exact Sciences

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in shares of Exact Sciences by 74.7% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,760,241 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $323,669,000 after acquiring an additional 2,462,165 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors raised its stake in shares of Exact Sciences by 10.7% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,537,617 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $985,439,000 after acquiring an additional 1,696,321 shares during the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp raised its stake in shares of Exact Sciences by 107.7% during the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 2,919,325 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $164,037,000 after acquiring an additional 1,513,873 shares during the last quarter. Groupama Asset Managment bought a new position in shares of Exact Sciences during the third quarter valued at about $821,000. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Exact Sciences during the fourth quarter valued at about $50,625,000. 88.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Exact Sciences Trading Down 0.5 %

The stock has a market capitalization of $9.12 billion, a P/E ratio of -8.84 and a beta of 1.24. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $54.91 and its 200 day moving average price is $59.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 2.12 and a quick ratio of 1.93.

Exact Sciences (NASDAQ:EXAS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 19th. The medical research company reported ($0.06) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.29) by $0.23. The firm had revenue of $713.42 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $701.45 million. Exact Sciences had a negative net margin of 37.29% and a negative return on equity of 4.97%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Exact Sciences Co. will post -0.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Exact Sciences Company Profile

Exact Sciences Corporation provides cancer screening and diagnostic test products in the United States and internationally. The company offers Cologuard, a non-invasive stool-based DNA screening test to detect DNA and hemoglobin biomarkers associated with colorectal cancer and pre-cancer. It also provides Oncotype DX Breast Recurrence Score Test; Oncotype DX Breast DCIS Score Test; Oncotype DX Colon Recurrence Score Test; OncoExTra Test for tumor profiling for patients with advanced, metastatic, refractory, relapsed, or recurrent cancer; and Covid-19 testing services.