HighTower Advisors LLC Acquires 10,391 Shares of Exelixis, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXEL)

HighTower Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Exelixis, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXEL) by 16.1% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 75,119 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 10,391 shares during the quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in Exelixis were worth $2,501,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of EXEL. Tri Ri Asset Management Corp bought a new position in shares of Exelixis during the third quarter worth approximately $4,396,000. Blue Trust Inc. increased its position in Exelixis by 134.7% during the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 14,302 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $476,000 after buying an additional 8,208 shares during the period. Intech Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Exelixis by 48.2% during the third quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 232,041 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $6,021,000 after buying an additional 75,489 shares in the last quarter. Range Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Exelixis in the fourth quarter valued at about $994,000. Finally, FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of Exelixis by 6.1% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,462,072 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $63,891,000 after acquiring an additional 140,568 shares in the last quarter. 85.27% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have weighed in on the stock. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Exelixis from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. HC Wainwright reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $40.00 price target on shares of Exelixis in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and set a $41.00 price target on shares of Exelixis in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Stephens restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $29.00 price objective on shares of Exelixis in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Finally, Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating and set a $42.00 price objective on shares of Exelixis in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $37.59.

Exelixis Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ EXEL opened at $36.96 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $10.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.88, a PEG ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 0.57. Exelixis, Inc. has a 12 month low of $20.14 and a 12 month high of $40.02. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $35.61 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $32.86.

Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The biotechnology company reported $0.48 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.51 by ($0.03). Exelixis had a return on equity of 23.52% and a net margin of 24.04%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Exelixis, Inc. will post 2.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Christopher J. Senner sold 29,314 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.14, for a total transaction of $1,059,407.96. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 779,607 shares in the company, valued at approximately $28,174,996.98. The trade was a 3.62 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Mary C. Beckerle sold 12,210 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.88, for a total value of $425,884.80. Following the sale, the director now owns 30,406 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,060,561.28. This trade represents a 28.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 140,343 shares of company stock valued at $5,177,234. 2.85% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Exelixis Profile

Exelixis, Inc, an oncology company, focuses on the discovery, development, and commercialization of new medicines for difficult-to-treat cancers in the United States. The company offers CABOMETYX tablets for the treatment of patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma who received prior anti-angiogenic therapy; and COMETRIQ capsules for the treatment of progressive and metastatic medullary thyroid cancer.