Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) Price Target Raised to $90.00

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) had its price target upped by Needham & Company LLC from $78.00 to $90.00 in a research report report published on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the stock.

A number of other brokerages have also recently issued reports on IONS. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. BMO Capital Markets upgraded Ionis Pharmaceuticals from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $40.00 to $70.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Ionis Pharmaceuticals from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $45.00 to $65.00 in a research note on Friday, September 26th. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and issued a $95.00 price objective on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Guggenheim boosted their price objective on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $90.00 to $92.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have assigned a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $83.05.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Trading Up 0.2%

NASDAQ IONS opened at $74.30 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -43.96 and a beta of 0.33. Ionis Pharmaceuticals has a one year low of $23.95 and a one year high of $75.49. 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’s fifty day moving average is $63.97 and its 200-day moving average is $46.65.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The company reported ($0.80) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.15) by $0.35. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 45.29% and a negative net margin of 26.45%.The company had revenue of $157.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $131.75 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($0.95) EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Ionis Pharmaceuticals has set its FY 2025 guidance at EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Ionis Pharmaceuticals will post -3.5 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Patrick R. O’neil sold 13,441 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.74, for a total transaction of $937,375.34. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 53,889 shares in the company, valued at $3,758,218.86. This represents a 19.96% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Brett P. Monia sold 437 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.26, for a total value of $30,266.62. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 179,572 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,437,156.72. This represents a 0.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 787,770 shares of company stock valued at $48,429,221. 2.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 14.2% in the first 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 during the last quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. increased its position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 253.3% in the second quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. now owns 3,800,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $150,138,000 after purchasing an additional 2,724,400 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 1.7% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,891,095 shares of the company’s stock worth $114,245,000 after purchasing an additional 48,141 shares during the last quarter. BVF Inc. IL bought a new position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the first quarter worth approximately $57,727,000. Finally, Groupama Asset Managment increased its position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 8.6% in the second quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 1,160,957 shares of the company’s stock worth $45,869,000 after purchasing an additional 91,746 shares during the last quarter. 93.86% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

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.