West Michigan Advisors LLC Takes Position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. $IONS

West Michigan Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 38,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,039,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Stanley Laman Group Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the 3rd quarter valued at about $2,340,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 66.1% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 862,593 shares of the company’s stock valued at $56,431,000 after acquiring an additional 343,409 shares during the period. Dynasty Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the 3rd quarter valued at about $938,000. Capricorn Fund Managers Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the 3rd quarter valued at about $10,650,000. Finally, Jain Global LLC grew its position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 3,037.4% during the 3rd quarter. Jain Global LLC now owns 225,739 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,768,000 after acquiring an additional 218,544 shares during the period. 93.86% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Piper Sandler raised their target price on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $87.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Barclays raised their target price on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $95.00 to $106.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 26th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $100.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 9th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group started coverage on Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a report on Monday. They issued a “buy” rating and a $110.00 price objective on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ionis Pharmaceuticals currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $96.90.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals stock opened at $74.83 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $12.36 billion, a P/E ratio of -30.67 and a beta of 0.40. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $76.27 and its 200-day simple moving average is $77.15. Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has a 1-year low of $28.79 and a 1-year high of $86.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.76, a current ratio of 3.83 and a quick ratio of 3.81.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The company reported ($1.41) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($1.23) by ($0.18). The company had revenue of $203.33 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $156.07 million. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 68.82% and a negative net margin of 40.36%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.66) earnings per share. Analysts predict that Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post -4.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ionis Pharmaceuticals

In other news, EVP C Frank Bennett sold 85,089 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $82.93, for a total transaction of $7,056,430.77. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 80,293 shares in the company, valued at $6,658,698.49. The trade was a 51.45% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Allene M. Diaz sold 54,878 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.35, for a total value of $4,354,569.30. Following the transaction, the director owned 3,811 shares in the company, valued at approximately $302,402.85. This represents a 93.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 864,155 shares of company stock worth $67,020,422. 2.60% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.