Leerink Partners Upgrades Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL) to “Outperform”

Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL) was upgraded by equities researchers at Leerink Partners from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday, MarketBeat reports. The brokerage currently has a $48.00 price target on the biotechnology company’s stock. Leerink Partners’ price target indicates a potential upside of 33.04% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other equities analysts have also commented on EXEL. Zacks Research lowered Exelixis from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 26th. Wall Street Zen raised Exelixis from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on Exelixis in a research report on Wednesday, September 17th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $47.00 price target on the stock. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and issued a $50.00 price objective on shares of Exelixis in a research report on Tuesday, July 29th. Finally, Stephens raised shares of Exelixis from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $29.00 to $60.00 in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Exelixis currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $44.53.

Exelixis Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of Exelixis stock opened at $36.08 on Tuesday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $38.68 and a 200-day simple moving average of $39.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.35, a PEG ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 0.38. Exelixis has a 1-year low of $27.86 and a 1-year high of $49.62.

Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL) last announced its earnings results on Monday, July 28th. The biotechnology company reported $0.75 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.63 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $568.26 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $574.36 million. Exelixis had a net margin of 27.01% and a return on equity of 27.47%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.84 EPS. Exelixis has set its FY 2025 guidance at EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Exelixis will post 2.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Exelixis

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in Exelixis by 2.2% during the first quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 7,795,074 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $287,794,000 after acquiring an additional 164,134 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Exelixis by 10.3% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 7,606,079 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $335,238,000 after purchasing an additional 712,190 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Exelixis by 0.4% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,445,469 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $328,196,000 after purchasing an additional 28,289 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in Exelixis by 40.2% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,572,189 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $205,725,000 after purchasing an additional 1,596,948 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its position in Exelixis by 42.9% in the second quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 5,262,643 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $231,951,000 after buying an additional 1,580,567 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.27% of the company’s stock.

About Exelixis

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.