Insider Selling: Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) Director Sells $2,262,960.00 in Stock

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS) Director Joseph Wender sold 28,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.82, for a total transaction of $2,262,960.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 36,035 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,912,348.70. The trade was a 43.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

Ionis Pharmaceuticals stock traded up $0.53 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $81.84. 2,530,628 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,075,005. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96, a current ratio of 2.79 and a quick ratio of 2.78. Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has a 12 month low of $23.95 and a 12 month high of $83.09. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -48.43 and a beta of 0.30. The business has a 50 day moving average of $72.51 and a two-hundred day moving average of $53.69.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The company reported ($0.80) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.15) by $0.35. The business had revenue of $156.72 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $131.75 million. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative net margin of 26.45% and a negative return on equity of 44.26%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 17.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned ($0.95) EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post -3.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

IONS has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Ionis Pharmaceuticals from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $49.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating and set a $89.00 target price (up from $85.00) on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a report on Thursday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $40.00 to $70.00 in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $84.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ionis Pharmaceuticals currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $84.15.

Institutional Trading of Ionis Pharmaceuticals

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the third quarter worth about $447,000. BlueCrest Capital Management Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,529,000. Alpine Global Management LLC raised its holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 119.8% in the 3rd quarter. Alpine Global Management LLC now owns 55,900 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,657,000 after purchasing an additional 30,463 shares during the period. Tweedy Browne Co LLC grew its holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 0.3% in the third quarter. Tweedy Browne Co LLC now owns 2,901,216 shares of the company’s stock valued at $189,798,000 after purchasing an additional 9,268 shares during the period. Finally, Coldstream Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the third quarter valued at approximately $293,000. 93.86% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.