Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Purchases New Holdings in Exact Sciences Corporation $EXAS

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund acquired a new position in shares of Exact Sciences Corporation (NASDAQ:EXAS) during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 80,870 shares of the medical research company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,297,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in EXAS. Great Lakes Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Exact Sciences by 3.7% during the 1st quarter. Great Lakes Advisors LLC now owns 4,971 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $215,000 after purchasing an additional 178 shares in the last quarter. Nissay Asset Management Corp Japan ADV lifted its position in Exact Sciences by 0.8% during the first quarter. Nissay Asset Management Corp Japan ADV now owns 22,432 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $971,000 after purchasing an additional 187 shares during the period. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale grew its stake in Exact Sciences by 0.4% during the second quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 58,333 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $3,127,000 after buying an additional 217 shares in the last quarter. IFP Advisors Inc increased its holdings in Exact Sciences by 6.5% in the 2nd quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 4,466 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $237,000 after buying an additional 273 shares during the period. Finally, Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Exact Sciences by 37.0% in the 2nd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,018 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $54,000 after buying an additional 275 shares in the last quarter. 88.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director James Edward Doyle sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.00, for a total value of $120,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 57,962 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,477,720. This represents a 3.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Brian Baranick sold 2,858 shares of Exact Sciences stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.08, for a total value of $200,288.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 22,368 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,567,549.44. This represents a 11.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Corporate insiders own 1.20% of the company’s stock.

Exact Sciences Trading Up 1.3%

Shares of NASDAQ EXAS opened at $68.37 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $12.95 billion, a P/E ratio of -12.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.56 and a beta of 1.34. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $59.24 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $53.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 2.56 and a current ratio of 2.89. Exact Sciences Corporation has a 52-week low of $38.81 and a 52-week high of $72.81.

Exact Sciences (NASDAQ:EXAS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 3rd. The medical research company reported $0.24 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.13 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $850.74 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $810.42 million. Exact Sciences had a negative net margin of 34.19% and a negative return on equity of 1.75%. Exact Sciences’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.21) earnings per share. Exact Sciences has set its FY 2025 guidance at EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Exact Sciences Corporation will post -0.58 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

EXAS has been the topic of several analyst reports. UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of Exact Sciences from $61.00 to $53.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Zacks Research raised Exact Sciences from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 6th. Benchmark boosted their price target on Exact Sciences from $60.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 4th. TD Cowen upped their price objective on Exact Sciences from $74.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 4th. Finally, Guggenheim lifted their target price on Exact Sciences from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 4th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Exact Sciences presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $74.06.

Exact Sciences Profile

Exact Sciences Corporation provides cancer screening and diagnostic test products in the United States and internationally. The company offers Cologuard, a non-invasive stool-based DNA screening test to detect DNA and hemoglobin biomarkers associated with colorectal cancer and pre-cancer. It also provides Oncotype DX Breast Recurrence Score Test; Oncotype DX Breast DCIS Score Test; Oncotype DX Colon Recurrence Score Test; OncoExTra Test for tumor profiling for patients with advanced, metastatic, refractory, relapsed, or recurrent cancer; and Covid-19 testing services.