Raymond James Reiterates “Market Perform” Rating for Exact Sciences (NASDAQ:EXAS)

Exact Sciences (NASDAQ:EXAS)‘s stock had its “market perform” rating reissued by investment analysts at Raymond James in a report issued on Thursday, Benzinga reports.

EXAS has been the subject of several other reports. Canaccord Genuity Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $75.00 target price on shares of Exact Sciences in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Benchmark reduced their price objective on Exact Sciences from $91.00 to $67.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on Exact Sciences from $88.00 to $75.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of Exact Sciences in a research report on Monday, June 3rd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $75.00 price target for the company. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on shares of Exact Sciences from $100.00 to $82.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $78.14.

Exact Sciences Trading Down 4.2 %

EXAS traded down $2.83 during trading on Thursday, hitting $64.94. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,240,203 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,661,567. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.00 billion, a P/E ratio of -49.30 and a beta of 1.26. Exact Sciences has a twelve month low of $40.62 and a twelve month high of $79.62. The company has a quick ratio of 1.98, a current ratio of 2.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $58.53 and its 200-day moving average price is $56.04.

Exact Sciences (NASDAQ:EXAS) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The medical research company reported ($0.09) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.37) by $0.28. The company had revenue of $699.26 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $690.02 million. Exact Sciences had a negative net margin of 6.70% and a negative return on equity of 4.97%. Exact Sciences’s quarterly revenue was up 12.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned ($0.45) EPS. Analysts anticipate that Exact Sciences will post -0.87 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Brian Baranick sold 929 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.00, for a total transaction of $65,030.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 13,687 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $958,090. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 1.36% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Exact Sciences

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in EXAS. Capital World Investors raised its position in shares of Exact Sciences by 74.4% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 13,025,313 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $899,528,000 after buying an additional 5,557,168 shares in the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Exact Sciences in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $163,896,000. Champlain Investment Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Exact Sciences by 175.3% during the first quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 2,258,235 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $155,954,000 after purchasing an additional 1,438,010 shares during the period. Sculptor Capital LP bought a new position in shares of Exact Sciences during the second quarter valued at approximately $32,819,000. Finally, Samlyn Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Exact Sciences in the 2nd quarter worth about $30,426,000. Institutional investors 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.