Stephens Reaffirms “Equal Weight” Rating for Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL)

Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL)‘s stock had its “equal weight” rating reiterated by investment analysts at Stephens in a report released on Monday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $29.00 price target on the biotechnology company’s stock. Stephens’ target price indicates a potential downside of 12.89% from the company’s current price.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on EXEL. TD Cowen increased their target price on Exelixis from $27.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Exelixis from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 price target on shares of Exelixis in a research report on Monday. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $34.00 target price on shares of Exelixis in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets cut Exelixis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $36.00 to $40.00 in a research note on Friday, December 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $35.75.

Exelixis Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:EXEL opened at $33.29 on Monday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $34.87 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $29.82. The company has a market capitalization of $9.51 billion, a PE ratio of 21.30, a PEG ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 0.53. Exelixis has a 52 week low of $20.01 and a 52 week high of $37.59.

Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The biotechnology company reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $539.50 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $490.31 million. Exelixis had a return on equity of 20.99% and a net margin of 22.43%. The company’s revenue was up 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.10 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Exelixis will post 1.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Exelixis news, EVP Jeffrey Hessekiel sold 60,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.67, for a total transaction of $2,200,200.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 486,059 shares in the company, valued at $17,823,783.53. This trade represents a 10.99 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Patrick J. Haley sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.27, for a total transaction of $352,700.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 278,665 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,828,514.55. This represents a 3.46 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 289,736 shares of company stock valued at $10,139,360. 2.85% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Exelixis

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Marshall Wace LLP acquired a new stake in Exelixis in the second quarter valued at about $801,000. Squarepoint Ops LLC grew its holdings in shares of Exelixis by 242.8% during the 2nd quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 89,449 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $2,010,000 after purchasing an additional 63,352 shares during the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp boosted its position in Exelixis by 62.1% in the second quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 433,311 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $9,736,000 after buying an additional 166,057 shares in the last quarter. Algert Global LLC grew its stake in shares of Exelixis by 7.6% during the second quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 276,352 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $6,210,000 after buying an additional 19,559 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Creative Planning increased its holdings in shares of Exelixis by 0.8% during the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 71,700 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $1,611,000 after buying an additional 548 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.27% of the company’s stock.

Exelixis Company Profile

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.