Wells Fargo & Company MN Acquires 703,343 Shares of Exelixis, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXEL)

Wells Fargo & Company MN raised its holdings in Exelixis, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXEL) by 1,637.9% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 746,286 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after buying an additional 703,343 shares during the quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN’s holdings in Exelixis were worth $24,851,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in Exelixis in the fourth quarter worth about $94,867,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its position in shares of Exelixis by 104.4% in the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 3,159,395 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $105,208,000 after acquiring an additional 1,613,482 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its stake in shares of Exelixis by 82.1% in the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,562,790 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $52,884,000 after purchasing an additional 704,786 shares during the period. Globeflex Capital L P lifted its stake in shares of Exelixis by 203.8% in the 4th quarter. Globeflex Capital L P now owns 975,151 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $32,473,000 after purchasing an additional 654,200 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Exelixis during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $17,046,000. 85.27% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Exelixis Price Performance

Exelixis stock opened at $35.31 on Friday. Exelixis, Inc. has a one year low of $20.14 and a one year high of $40.02. The business’s fifty day moving average is $36.16 and its 200 day moving average is $33.95. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.88 billion, a PE ratio of 19.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 0.57.

Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The biotechnology company reported $0.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.51 by ($0.03). Exelixis had a net margin of 24.04% and a return on equity of 23.52%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Exelixis, Inc. will post 2.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have commented on EXEL shares. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on Exelixis from $30.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Exelixis from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $30.00 to $40.00 in a research report on Monday, January 27th. BMO Capital Markets cut shares of Exelixis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $36.00 to $40.00 in a report on Friday, December 20th. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Exelixis from $30.00 to $34.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $41.00 price target on shares of Exelixis in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $37.59.

Insider Activity at Exelixis

In other news, CFO Christopher J. Senner sold 29,314 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.14, for a total transaction of $1,059,407.96. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 779,607 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $28,174,996.98. This represents a 3.62 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Patrick J. Haley sold 52,636 shares of Exelixis stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.98, for a total value of $1,946,479.28. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 303,310 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,216,403.80. The trade was a 14.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 140,343 shares of company stock worth $5,177,234 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 2.85% of the company’s stock.

About Exelixis

Exelixis, Inc, an oncology company, focuses on the discovery, development, and commercialization of new medicines for difficult-to-treat cancers in the United States. The company offers CABOMETYX tablets for the treatment of patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma who received prior anti-angiogenic therapy; and COMETRIQ capsules for the treatment of progressive and metastatic medullary thyroid cancer.