Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) Shares Gap Down to $48.33

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS)’s share price gapped down before the market opened on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $48.33, but opened at $44.49. Ionis Pharmaceuticals shares last traded at $43.49, with a volume of 3,116,130 shares changing hands.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently commented on IONS shares. BMO Capital Markets downgraded Ionis Pharmaceuticals from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $67.00 to $60.00 in a report on Friday, August 2nd. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $54.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $60.00 price objective on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a report on Friday, August 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $50.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, August 26th. Finally, Leerink Partnrs upgraded Ionis Pharmaceuticals from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $60.68.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $6.27 billion, a P/E ratio of -16.32 and a beta of 0.39. The company has a current ratio of 7.61, a quick ratio of 7.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.67. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $48.00 and its 200-day simple moving average is $44.04.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported ($0.45) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.92) by $0.47. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative net margin of 44.90% and a negative return on equity of 115.66%. The firm had revenue of $225.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $152.35 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.60 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post -3.69 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Richard S. Geary sold 2,430 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.00, for a total value of $116,640.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 85,508 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,104,384. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, EVP Richard S. Geary sold 2,430 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.00, for a total transaction of $116,640.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 85,508 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,104,384. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Joseph Klein III sold 12,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total value of $600,000.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 16,346 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $817,300. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 14,750 shares of company stock worth $732,371 over the last three months. 2.71% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ionis Pharmaceuticals

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 8,378 shares of the company’s stock valued at $424,000 after purchasing an additional 202 shares during the period. Mather Group LLC. boosted its holdings in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 35.8% in the 2nd quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 911 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 240 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 3.5% in the second quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 7,624 shares of the company’s stock valued at $363,000 after buying an additional 261 shares in the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp increased its holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 7.8% during the fourth quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 5,188 shares of the company’s stock worth $263,000 after buying an additional 376 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Natixis Advisors LLC raised its position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 1.6% during the second quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 23,404 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,115,000 after acquiring an additional 376 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.86% of the company’s stock.

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.