46,862 Shares in Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. $IONS Bought by Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio purchased a new stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 46,862 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,716,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Corient Private Wealth LP bought a new position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the second quarter valued at approximately $15,604,000. Artia Global Partners LP purchased a new stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the 2nd quarter valued at $11,448,000. Bamco Inc. NY bought a new position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the 2nd quarter valued at $1,110,000. Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the 2nd quarter worth $62,718,000. Finally, Boone Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the 2nd quarter worth $41,229,000. Institutional investors own 93.86% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on IONS. Citigroup reduced their price objective on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $115.00 to $100.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $72.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 3rd. Needham & Company LLC decreased their price target on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $105.00 to $86.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered Ionis Pharmaceuticals from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 1st. Seventeen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $94.15.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Price Performance

NASDAQ IONS opened at $58.13 on Friday. Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has a one year low of $50.01 and a one year high of $86.74. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $61.71 and a 200 day moving average of $70.64. The company has a market capitalization of $9.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -16.80 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.07, a quick ratio of 7.73 and a current ratio of 7.89.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The company reported ($0.69) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.08) by $0.39. The firm had revenue of $267.95 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $189.10 million. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 111.08% and a negative net margin of 64.76%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 40.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.70 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post -3.57 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Ionis Pharmaceuticals

In other news, EVP Eugene Schneider sold 26,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.05, for a total value of $2,107,300.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 77,114 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,250,089.70. This trade represents a 25.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP Holly B. Kordasiewicz sold 362 shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.30, for a total value of $30,516.60. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 22,096 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,862,692.80. The trade was a 1.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 225,163 shares of company stock valued at $17,711,191 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 1.81% of the company’s stock.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc is a biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of RNA-targeted therapies designed to modulate gene expression. The company’s proprietary antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) technology enables the selective binding of short synthetic strands of nucleic acids to messenger RNA (mRNA), thereby inhibiting or altering the production of disease-causing proteins. Ionis’ pipeline spans a range of therapeutic areas, including neurological disorders, cardiovascular conditions, metabolic diseases and rare genetic disorders.

Since its founding in 1989 by Dr.