Exact Sciences Co. (NASDAQ:EXAS) Short Interest Down 5.3% in December

Exact Sciences Co. (NASDAQ:EXAS) was the target of a large decrease in short interest in December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 11,200,000 shares, a decrease of 5.3% from the November 30th total of 11,830,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 2,370,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 4.7 days.

Insider Activity

In other Exact Sciences news, EVP Brian Baranick sold 929 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.00, for a total transaction of $65,030.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 12,758 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $893,060. This represents a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Kevin T. Conroy bought 19,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $51.35 per share, with a total value of $1,001,325.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,074,191 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $55,159,707.85. This trade represents a 1.85 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Company insiders own 1.36% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Exact Sciences

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Huntington National Bank grew its stake in Exact Sciences by 838.1% in the third quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 394 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 352 shares during the period. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. purchased a new position in Exact Sciences in the 2nd quarter worth about $29,000. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new position in Exact Sciences during the 3rd quarter valued at about $34,000. Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Exact Sciences during the 3rd quarter valued at about $35,000. Finally, Vestor Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Exact Sciences during the third quarter valued at approximately $46,000. 88.82% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

EXAS has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on Exact Sciences from $75.00 to $65.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price objective on Exact Sciences from $75.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on shares of Exact Sciences from $82.00 to $67.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on Exact Sciences from $70.00 to $67.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, BTIG Research raised their price target on Exact Sciences from $65.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $72.94.

Exact Sciences Trading Down 0.0 %

Shares of Exact Sciences stock opened at $56.19 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $59.60 and its 200-day moving average price is $58.07. The company has a current ratio of 2.12, a quick ratio of 1.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72. Exact Sciences has a 12-month low of $40.62 and a 12-month high of $79.62. The company has a market cap of $10.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -48.03 and a beta of 1.24.

Exact Sciences (NASDAQ:EXAS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The medical research company reported ($0.21) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.20) by ($0.01). Exact Sciences had a negative return on equity of 6.17% and a negative net margin of 7.95%. The company had revenue of $708.66 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $716.80 million. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Exact Sciences will post -1.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.