Piper Sandler Increases Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) Price Target to $65.00

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) had its target price boosted by equities research analysts at Piper Sandler from $62.00 to $65.00 in a note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “overweight” rating on the stock. Piper Sandler’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 52.26% from the company’s previous close.

IONS has been the topic of several other reports. HC Wainwright boosted their price objective on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Needham & Company LLC cut their target price on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $60.00 to $55.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $77.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $55.00 to $62.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $57.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have given a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $60.85.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Price Performance

Ionis Pharmaceuticals stock opened at $42.69 on Friday. Ionis Pharmaceuticals has a 52 week low of $23.95 and a 52 week high of $50.43. The company has a quick ratio of 2.86, a current ratio of 2.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $41.38 and its 200 day simple moving average is $35.13. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.80 billion, a PE ratio of -23.20 and a beta of 0.25.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The company reported $0.70 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.19 by $0.51. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative net margin of 28.25% and a negative return on equity of 45.29%. The business had revenue of $452.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $270.90 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.45) EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 100.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Ionis Pharmaceuticals has set its FY 2025 guidance at EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Ionis Pharmaceuticals will post -3.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Ionis Pharmaceuticals

In other news, Director B Lynne Parshall sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.93, for a total transaction of $209,650.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 86,344 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,620,403.92. This represents a 5.47% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, EVP C Frank Bennett sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.98, for a total transaction of $439,800.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 93,466 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,110,634.68. This represents a 9.67% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 38,141 shares of company stock worth $1,644,606. Corporate insiders own 2.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of IONS. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. increased its stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 253.3% during the 2nd quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. now owns 3,800,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $150,138,000 after acquiring an additional 2,724,400 shares during the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 14.2% during the 1st quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 16,175,533 shares of the company’s stock worth $488,016,000 after purchasing an additional 2,006,334 shares in the last quarter. BVF Inc. IL acquired a new stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the 1st quarter worth approximately $57,727,000. Vestal Point Capital LP acquired a new stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the 4th quarter worth approximately $20,801,000. Finally, Orbimed Advisors LLC increased its position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 21.2% during the 4th quarter. Orbimed Advisors LLC now owns 2,817,347 shares of the company’s stock worth $98,494,000 after purchasing an additional 492,900 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.86% of the company’s stock.

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.