LPL Financial LLC Decreases Stock Holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS)

LPL Financial LLC reduced its position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS – Get Rating) by 0.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 74,099 shares of the company’s stock after selling 641 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC owned about 0.05% of Ionis Pharmaceuticals worth $2,799,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 5.0% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,806,023 shares of the company’s stock valued at $566,411,000 after acquiring an additional 605,747 shares during the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC lifted its position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 10.1% in the first quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 6,476,033 shares of the company’s stock valued at $239,872,000 after acquiring an additional 593,051 shares during the last quarter. BVF Inc. IL lifted its position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 125.1% in the third quarter. BVF Inc. IL now owns 2,872,953 shares of the company’s stock valued at $127,071,000 after acquiring an additional 1,596,379 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 30.1% in the third quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 2,077,260 shares of the company’s stock valued at $91,877,000 after buying an additional 481,205 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 4.1% in the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,137,827 shares of the company’s stock valued at $42,145,000 after buying an additional 44,388 shares during the last quarter. 87.32% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Trading Up 7.0 %

Shares of IONS opened at $39.19 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 9.81, a quick ratio of 9.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.42. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $35.78 and its two-hundred day moving average is $38.14. Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has a twelve month low of $32.69 and a twelve month high of $48.82. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.61 billion, a P/E ratio of -16.97 and a beta of 0.54.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS – Get Rating) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 3rd. The company reported ($0.87) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($1.00) by $0.13. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative net margin of 56.85% and a negative return on equity of 57.58%. The company had revenue of $131.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $126.88 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted ($0.46) earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post -3.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on IONS. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $40.00 to $37.00 in a report on Thursday, May 4th. Citigroup raised shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the company from $30.00 to $36.00 in a report on Thursday, May 4th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 11th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a report on Thursday. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Finally, SVB Securities dropped their price target on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $34.00 to $27.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ionis Pharmaceuticals currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $46.64.

About Ionis Pharmaceuticals

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Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc engages in the development and commercialization of human therapeutic drugs using antisense technology. It operates through the Ionis Core segment. The Ionis Core segment exploits a novel drug discovery platform to generate a pipeline of drugs. The company was founded by Stanley T.