Richard Geary Sells 57,900 Shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) Stock

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS) EVP Richard Geary sold 57,900 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.24, for a total transaction of $3,777,396.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 79,657 shares in the company, valued at $5,196,822.68. This represents a 42.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Price Performance

Ionis Pharmaceuticals stock opened at $68.40 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $10.90 billion, a PE ratio of -37.17 and a beta of 0.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 2.87 and a quick ratio of 2.86. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $51.71 and a 200 day simple moving average of $40.33. Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has a one year low of $23.95 and a one year high of $68.41.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The company reported $0.70 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.19 by $0.51. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 45.29% and a negative net margin of 28.25%.The company had revenue of $452.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $270.90 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.45) earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 100.9% on a year-over-year basis. Ionis Pharmaceuticals has set its FY 2025 guidance at EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post -3.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Ionis Pharmaceuticals

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in IONS. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. raised its stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 253.3% in the second quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. now owns 3,800,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $150,138,000 after buying an additional 2,724,400 shares in the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 14.2% during the 1st quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 16,175,533 shares of the company’s stock valued at $488,016,000 after buying an additional 2,006,334 shares in the last quarter. BVF Inc. IL bought a new position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the first quarter valued at approximately $57,727,000. Vestal Point Capital LP bought a new position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the 2nd quarter worth about $19,755,000. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the 2nd quarter valued at $17,790,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.86% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

IONS has been the topic of a number of research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Ionis Pharmaceuticals from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $45.00 to $65.00 in a report on Friday, September 26th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $69.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $71.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 23rd. Bank of America upped their target price on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $81.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 23rd. Finally, HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and set a $95.00 price objective on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Tuesday, September 23rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $73.88.

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.