Natixis Advisors LLC Sells 6,767 Shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS)

Natixis Advisors LLC lowered its stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS) by 32.1% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 14,313 shares of the company’s stock after selling 6,767 shares during the quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals were worth $500,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 7.4% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,668,358 shares of the company’s stock valued at $106,922,000 after acquiring an additional 183,814 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 967.2% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 141,917 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,961,000 after purchasing an additional 128,619 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 222.5% in the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 23,927 shares of the company’s stock worth $836,000 after buying an additional 16,508 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 8.7% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,443,020 shares of the company’s stock valued at $57,807,000 after buying an additional 114,914 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. boosted its stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 13.6% during the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 650,779 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,070,000 after buying an additional 77,909 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.86% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Patrick R. O’neil sold 1,207 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.35, for a total value of $39,046.45. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 56,245 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,819,525.75. The trade was a 2.10 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Eric Swayze sold 7,154 shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.84, for a total value of $234,937.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 45,670 shares in the company, valued at $1,499,802.80. This represents a 13.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 111,956 shares of company stock worth $3,608,439. 2.71% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on IONS. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $60.00 price objective on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a report on Thursday, February 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $47.00 to $45.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $67.00 to $64.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 20th. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Ionis Pharmaceuticals to a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $59.44.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Price Performance

Ionis Pharmaceuticals stock opened at $31.72 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.12, a current ratio of 8.47 and a quick ratio of 8.82. The stock has a market cap of $5.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -10.43 and a beta of 0.28. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $32.54 and a two-hundred day moving average of $35.92. Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has a 1 year low of $30.23 and a 1 year high of $52.34.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The company reported ($0.66) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.12) by $0.46. The firm had revenue of $227.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $140.97 million. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 100.05% and a negative net margin of 64.25%. Ionis Pharmaceuticals’s quarterly revenue was down 30.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.12 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post -3.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

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.