American Century Companies Inc. Raises Holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. $IONS

American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS) by 304.9% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 472,749 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 355,981 shares during the quarter. American Century Companies Inc. owned 0.30% of Ionis Pharmaceuticals worth $18,678,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Allworth Financial LP boosted 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 purchasing an additional 517 shares during the period. Parallel Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 1,127 shares in the last quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the first quarter valued at $60,000. Signaturefd LLC boosted its holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 46.9% in the second quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 2,030 shares of the company’s stock valued at $80,000 after purchasing an additional 648 shares during the period. Finally, Allianz SE acquired a new position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the 2nd quarter worth $83,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.86% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director B Lynne Parshall sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.74, for a total value of $358,700.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 61,344 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,400,818.56. This trade represents a 7.54% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Joseph H. Wender sold 11,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.16, for a total transaction of $841,792.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 64,035 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,812,870.60. The trade was a 14.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 505,566 shares of company stock worth $35,304,952 in the last quarter. Insiders own 2.71% of the company’s stock.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

Shares of IONS stock opened at $81.31 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $72.51 and a 200 day moving average price of $53.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 2.86 and a current ratio of 2.87. The stock has a market cap of $13.17 billion, a PE ratio of -48.11 and a beta of 0.29. Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has a 1 year low of $23.95 and a 1 year high of $82.95.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The company reported ($0.80) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 business had revenue of $156.72 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $131.75 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned ($0.95) earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 17.2% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post -3.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on IONS shares. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $84.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. HC Wainwright lifted their price target on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $100.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 10th. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $69.00 to $84.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Guggenheim increased their target price on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $90.00 to $92.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 23rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $77.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have given a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $84.15.

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.