Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) Given “Buy” Rating at Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC restated their buy rating on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) in a research note issued to investors on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $55.00 price objective on the stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also issued reports on the company. Piper Sandler upped their price target on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $62.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. Morgan Stanley upgraded Ionis Pharmaceuticals from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $55.00 to $62.00 in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $77.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $45.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 12th. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $57.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ionis Pharmaceuticals currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $60.92.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Price Performance

IONS stock opened at $41.82 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 2.87 and a quick ratio of 2.86. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $41.51 and a 200-day simple moving average of $35.22. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.67 billion, a PE ratio of -22.73 and a beta of 0.25. Ionis Pharmaceuticals has a 1 year low of $23.95 and a 1 year high of $50.43.

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

Insider Activity at Ionis Pharmaceuticals

In other Ionis Pharmaceuticals news, EVP Richard S. Geary sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.86, for a total transaction of $428,600.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 89,492 shares in the company, valued at $3,835,627.12. This represents a 10.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Eugene Schneider sold 9,549 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.80, for a total value of $408,697.20. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 51,507 shares in the company, valued at $2,204,499.60. This trade represents a 15.64% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 38,141 shares of company stock valued at $1,644,606 over the last ninety days. 2.71% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Ionis Pharmaceuticals

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Allworth Financial LP raised its stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 231.8% in the second quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 740 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 517 shares in the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC increased its holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 45.6% in the first quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,382 shares of the company’s stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 433 shares during the last quarter. Raiffeisen Bank International AG purchased a new position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the fourth quarter valued at $62,000. Parallel Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 151.3% in the second quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 1,872 shares of the company’s stock valued at $74,000 after buying an additional 1,127 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ancora Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the first quarter valued at $60,000. 93.86% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.