Sentry Investment Management LLC Sells 2,715 Shares of Exact Sciences Co. (NASDAQ:EXAS)

Sentry Investment Management LLC reduced its position in shares of Exact Sciences Co. (NASDAQ:EXAS) by 39.2% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 4,205 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 2,715 shares during the period. Sentry Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Exact Sciences were worth $178,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in EXAS. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its position in shares of Exact Sciences by 30.9% during the fourth quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 848 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $63,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in Exact Sciences by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 695,542 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $51,466,000 after buying an additional 24,259 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. increased its holdings in Exact Sciences by 5.8% during the fourth quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 21,919 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,622,000 after buying an additional 1,200 shares during the last quarter. Westpac Banking Corp purchased a new stake in Exact Sciences during the fourth quarter worth about $413,000. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC increased its stake in shares of Exact Sciences by 5.4% in the fourth quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 14,901 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,102,000 after purchasing an additional 759 shares in the last quarter. 88.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently commented on EXAS shares. Evercore ISI dropped their price target on shares of Exact Sciences from $80.00 to $72.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 2nd. Benchmark cut their price target on Exact Sciences from $91.00 to $67.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 1st. BTIG Research decreased their price objective on Exact Sciences from $80.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, June 26th. Wells Fargo & Company began coverage on Exact Sciences in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $75.00 target price for the company. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on shares of Exact Sciences from $88.00 to $75.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Exact Sciences has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $78.86.

Exact Sciences Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ EXAS opened at $67.39 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $12.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -51.05 and a beta of 1.26. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $54.47 and its 200 day moving average is $55.40. The company has a current ratio of 2.17, a quick ratio of 1.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73. Exact Sciences Co. has a 1-year low of $40.62 and a 1-year high of $80.05.

Exact Sciences (NASDAQ:EXAS) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The medical research company reported ($0.09) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.37) by $0.28. The business had revenue of $699.26 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $690.02 million. Exact Sciences had a negative return on equity of 4.97% and a negative net margin of 6.70%. Exact Sciences’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.45) earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Exact Sciences Co. will post -0.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Exact Sciences Company Profile

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.