Creative Planning Boosts Holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS)

Creative Planning boosted its stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS) by 5.7% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 28,382 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 1,522 shares during the quarter. Creative Planning’s holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals were worth $1,137,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of IONS. TD Asset Management Inc lifted its holdings in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 6.1% in the 2nd quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 952,762 shares of the company’s stock valued at $45,409,000 after purchasing an additional 54,400 shares during the last quarter. Candriam S.C.A. lifted its stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 4.0% in the second quarter. Candriam S.C.A. now owns 948,266 shares of the company’s stock valued at $45,192,000 after buying an additional 36,369 shares during the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 12.2% in the first quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 571,763 shares of the company’s stock valued at $24,786,000 after acquiring an additional 62,230 shares during the period. Great Point Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the second quarter worth approximately $15,728,000. Finally, Logos Global Management LP acquired a new position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the 2nd quarter valued at $14,298,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.86% of the company’s stock.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Trading Down 2.2 %

Shares of IONS stock opened at $38.39 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $5.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -15.23 and a beta of 0.38. 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 firm has a 50-day moving average price of $41.96 and a 200 day moving average price of $43.04. Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has a twelve month low of $35.95 and a twelve month high of $54.44.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported ($0.45) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.92) by $0.47. The firm had revenue of $225.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $152.35 million. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative net margin of 44.90% and a negative return on equity of 115.66%. Ionis Pharmaceuticals’s revenue was up 19.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.60 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post -3.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on IONS shares. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $33.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. BMO Capital Markets downgraded Ionis Pharmaceuticals from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $67.00 to $60.00 in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Bank of America lifted their target price on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $67.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. StockNews.com cut Ionis Pharmaceuticals from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. They set a “buy” rating and a $75.00 price target for the company. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ionis Pharmaceuticals has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $60.28.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Richard S. Geary sold 2,430 shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction on Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.00, for a total value of $116,640.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 85,508 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,104,384. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders have sold a total of 2,803 shares of company stock valued at $134,402 in the last quarter. 2.71% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.