JPMorgan Chase & Co. Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) Stock Price

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) had its price objective dropped by equities research analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $51.00 to $47.00 in a research report issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “neutral” rating on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co.‘s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 47.63% from the company’s current price.

A number of other brokerages have also issued reports on IONS. StockNews.com lowered shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Friday, December 20th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $60.00 to $45.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $70.00 target price on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Citigroup cut their target price on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $67.00 to $64.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $59.56.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Price Performance

Ionis Pharmaceuticals stock traded down $0.38 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $31.84. The company had a trading volume of 292,344 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,645,182. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $32.91 and a 200 day simple moving average of $37.23. The company has a market cap of $5.06 billion, a P/E ratio of -10.47 and a beta of 0.28. Ionis Pharmaceuticals has a fifty-two week low of $30.23 and a fifty-two week high of $52.34. The company has a current ratio of 8.47, a quick ratio of 8.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.12.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 19th. The company reported ($0.66) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.12) by $0.46. The business had revenue of $227.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $140.97 million. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 100.05% and a negative net margin of 64.25%. Ionis Pharmaceuticals’s quarterly revenue was down 30.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.12 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Ionis Pharmaceuticals will post -3.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Ionis Pharmaceuticals news, CEO Brett P. Monia sold 38,843 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $31.65, for a total transaction of $1,229,380.95. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 180,683 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,718,616.95. The trade was a 17.69 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Michael R. Hayden purchased 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 23rd. The stock was bought at an average cost of $36.22 per share, with a total value of $181,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 35,219 shares in the company, valued at $1,275,632.18. The trade was a 16.55 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 111,816 shares of company stock worth $3,603,914 over the last quarter. 2.71% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ionis Pharmaceuticals

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Capital World Investors raised its stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 46.5% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 11,465,413 shares of the company’s stock worth $400,831,000 after purchasing an additional 3,637,041 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $59,948,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 9.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,472,539 shares of the company’s stock worth $575,880,000 after acquiring an additional 1,416,781 shares during the period. Vestal Point Capital LP purchased a new stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the 4th quarter worth about $20,801,000. Finally, Orbimed Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 21.2% in the 4th quarter. Orbimed Advisors LLC now owns 2,817,347 shares of the company’s stock worth $98,494,000 after purchasing an additional 492,900 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 93.86% of the company’s stock.

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.