Exelixis Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NASDAQ:EXEL)

Exelixis, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXEL) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Investors purchased 12,250 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 373% compared to the typical daily volume of 2,588 call options.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Patrick J. Haley sold 34,387 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.06, for a total value of $1,515,091.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 412,072 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,155,892.32. This represents a 7.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Sue Gail Eckhardt sold 18,838 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.74, for a total transaction of $805,136.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 21,380 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $913,781.20. This trade represents a 46.84% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 456,605 shares of company stock valued at $20,966,005. Company insiders own 2.82% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Exelixis

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of EXEL. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Exelixis during the 1st quarter worth approximately $123,310,000. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in shares of Exelixis by 308.1% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,975,241 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $132,376,000 after buying an additional 3,001,204 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Exelixis by 73.8% during the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 6,893,889 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $250,869,000 after buying an additional 2,926,884 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Exelixis during the 4th quarter worth approximately $94,867,000. Finally, Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec grew its position in shares of Exelixis by 330.4% during the 4th quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 2,484,395 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $82,730,000 after buying an additional 1,907,167 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.27% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on EXEL. HC Wainwright increased their target price on shares of Exelixis from $47.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, June 30th. Stephens raised shares of Exelixis from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $29.00 to $60.00 in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Exelixis from $45.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 15th. Truist Financial dropped their target price on shares of Exelixis from $56.00 to $49.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Exelixis from $29.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $44.44.

Exelixis Stock Performance

Exelixis stock opened at $36.85 on Thursday. Exelixis has a 52-week low of $23.13 and a 52-week high of $49.62. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $43.17 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $38.88. The firm has a market cap of $9.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.72, a PEG ratio of 0.73 and a beta of 0.28.

Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 28th. The biotechnology company reported $0.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.63 by $0.12. Exelixis had a net margin of 27.01% and a return on equity of 27.47%. The firm had revenue of $568.26 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $574.36 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.84 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Exelixis will post 2.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.