Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) Earns Outperform Rating from Royal Bank of Canada

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reaffirmed by research analysts at Royal Bank of Canada in a report issued on Thursday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $70.00 target price on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 70.77% from the stock’s current price.

IONS has been the subject of several other reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $50.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, August 26th. TD Cowen upped their target price on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $54.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Barclays upped their price target on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $45.00 to $51.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. They set a “buy” rating and a $75.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $50.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $60.68.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

Shares of IONS remained flat at $40.99 during trading hours on Thursday. The stock had a trading volume of 81,929 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,305,390. The company has a quick ratio of 7.51, a current ratio of 7.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.67. Ionis Pharmaceuticals has a twelve month low of $35.95 and a twelve month high of $54.44. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -15.35 and a beta of 0.39. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $46.73 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $43.75.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported ($0.45) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.92) by $0.47. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 115.66% and a negative net margin of 44.90%. The firm had revenue of $225.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $152.35 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.60 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 19.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Ionis Pharmaceuticals will post -3.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ionis Pharmaceuticals

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky raised its position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 70.6% during the 1st quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky now owns 24,083 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,044,000 after purchasing an additional 9,965 shares during the last quarter. Entropy Technologies LP acquired a new stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the 1st quarter valued at about $630,000. TD Asset Management Inc raised its holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 6.5% in the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 956,852 shares of the company’s stock valued at $48,407,000 after acquiring an additional 58,000 shares during the last quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. acquired a new stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the 1st quarter valued at about $765,000. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 13.5% in the 4th quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 260,702 shares of the company’s stock valued at $13,189,000 after acquiring an additional 31,025 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.86% of the company’s stock.

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.