Kyle Jenne Sells 4,902 Shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) Stock

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS) EVP Kyle Jenne sold 4,902 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.17, for a total transaction of $368,483.34. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 23,713 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,782,506.21. This trade represents a 17.13% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards.

Kyle Jenne also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Tuesday, March 10th, Kyle Jenne sold 37,277 shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.85, for a total transaction of $2,827,460.45.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Trading Up 0.6%

Shares of NASDAQ:IONS opened at $75.71 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $76.85 and a 200-day moving average of $77.00. The firm has a market cap of $12.51 billion, a P/E ratio of -31.03 and a beta of 0.40. Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has a twelve month low of $27.90 and a twelve month high of $86.74. The company has a current ratio of 3.83, a quick ratio of 3.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.76.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The company reported ($1.41) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.23) by ($0.18). The company had revenue of $203.33 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $156.07 million. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 68.82% and a negative net margin of 40.36%.The company’s revenue was down 10.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted ($0.66) earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post -3.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently weighed in on IONS shares. Barclays upped their price objective on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $95.00 to $106.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 26th. HC Wainwright boosted their price target on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $110.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 25th. Bank of America upped their price target on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $100.00 to $111.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 9th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $82.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 5th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 28th. Seventeen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ionis Pharmaceuticals presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $94.37.

Institutional Trading of Ionis Pharmaceuticals

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in IONS. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. bought a new stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the third quarter worth approximately $25,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 198.4% during the third quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC now owns 376 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 250 shares in the last quarter. Mather Group LLC. bought a new stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the third quarter worth approximately $27,000. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. bought a new stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the fourth quarter worth approximately $27,000. Finally, Quarry LP bought a new stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the third quarter worth approximately $38,000. 93.86% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Ionis Pharmaceuticals

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc is a biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of RNA-targeted therapies designed to modulate gene expression. The company’s proprietary antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) technology enables the selective binding of short synthetic strands of nucleic acids to messenger RNA (mRNA), thereby inhibiting or altering the production of disease-causing proteins. Ionis’ pipeline spans a range of therapeutic areas, including neurological disorders, cardiovascular conditions, metabolic diseases and rare genetic disorders.

Since its founding in 1989 by Dr.