Exact Sciences’ (EXAS) “Buy” Rating Reiterated at Benchmark

Benchmark reaffirmed their buy rating on shares of Exact Sciences (NASDAQ:EXAS) in a research note published on Monday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a $65.00 price target on the medical research company’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently commented on EXAS. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on Exact Sciences from $85.00 to $75.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, November 11th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price objective on shares of Exact Sciences from $75.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. BTIG Research boosted their price objective on shares of Exact Sciences from $65.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on shares of Exact Sciences from $84.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Evercore ISI decreased their price target on Exact Sciences from $80.00 to $60.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $72.94.

Exact Sciences Trading Down 1.3 %

Shares of Exact Sciences stock opened at $53.52 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $9.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -45.74 and a beta of 1.24. Exact Sciences has a 52-week low of $40.62 and a 52-week high of $79.62. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $57.22 and its 200-day simple moving average is $59.07. The company has a quick ratio of 1.93, a current ratio of 2.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72.

Exact Sciences (NASDAQ:EXAS) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The medical research company reported ($0.21) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.20) by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $708.66 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $716.80 million. Exact Sciences had a negative return on equity of 6.17% and a negative net margin of 7.95%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Exact Sciences will post -1.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Exact Sciences

In other news, CEO Kevin T. Conroy bought 19,500 shares of Exact Sciences stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 13th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $51.35 per share, for a total transaction of $1,001,325.00. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer now owns 1,074,191 shares in the company, valued at approximately $55,159,707.85. This trade represents a 1.85 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 1.36% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Exact Sciences

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. WCM Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Exact Sciences by 1,153.2% during the third quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 187,807 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $12,388,000 after acquiring an additional 172,821 shares during the last quarter. Simplify Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Exact Sciences by 67.5% during the third quarter. Simplify Asset Management Inc. now owns 29,277 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,994,000 after purchasing an additional 11,800 shares during the last quarter. Zacks Investment Management purchased a new stake in shares of Exact Sciences in the third quarter valued at $2,083,000. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. grew its position in shares of Exact Sciences by 59.5% in the third quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 335,705 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $22,868,000 after purchasing an additional 125,192 shares during the period. Finally, Profund Advisors LLC increased its stake in Exact Sciences by 239.8% in the second quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 78,589 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $3,320,000 after purchasing an additional 55,459 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.82% of the company’s stock.

About Exact Sciences

Exact Sciences Corporation provides cancer screening and diagnostic test products in the United States and internationally. The company offers Cologuard, a non-invasive stool-based DNA screening test to detect DNA and hemoglobin biomarkers associated with colorectal cancer and pre-cancer. It also provides Oncotype DX Breast Recurrence Score Test; Oncotype DX Breast DCIS Score Test; Oncotype DX Colon Recurrence Score Test; OncoExTra Test for tumor profiling for patients with advanced, metastatic, refractory, relapsed, or recurrent cancer; and Covid-19 testing services.