Banco Santander S.A. Purchases Shares of 24,295 Exelixis, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXEL)

Banco Santander S.A. purchased a new stake in shares of Exelixis, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXEL) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 24,295 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock, valued at approximately $809,000.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Exelixis by 6.1% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,462,072 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $63,891,000 after buying an additional 140,568 shares during the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Exelixis by 20.4% in the 4th quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 2,156,996 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $71,828,000 after buying an additional 366,141 shares during the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP boosted its stake in shares of Exelixis by 6.1% in the 3rd quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 1,702,590 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $44,182,000 after buying an additional 98,000 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its stake in shares of Exelixis by 82.1% in the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,562,790 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $52,884,000 after buying an additional 704,786 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Systematic Financial Management LP boosted its stake in shares of Exelixis by 7.1% in the 3rd quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP now owns 1,168,391 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $30,320,000 after buying an additional 77,599 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.27% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on EXEL. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded Exelixis from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $36.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Monday, February 24th. HC Wainwright reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $40.00 price objective on shares of Exelixis in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Exelixis from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $30.00 to $40.00 in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Guggenheim reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $42.00 price objective on shares of Exelixis in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Finally, Oppenheimer downgraded Exelixis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $41.00 to $33.00 in a research note on Friday, January 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $37.24.

Exelixis Stock Performance

Exelixis stock opened at $38.58 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $10.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.80, a PEG ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 0.57. Exelixis, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $20.14 and a fifty-two week high of $39.30. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $34.99 and its 200-day moving average price is $32.12.

Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The biotechnology company reported $0.48 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.51 by ($0.03). Exelixis had a return on equity of 23.52% and a net margin of 24.04%. Sell-side analysts predict that Exelixis, Inc. will post 2.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Exelixis

In other news, EVP Patrick J. Haley sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.80, for a total value of $388,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 341,028 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,231,886.40. This represents a 2.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Jack L. Wyszomierski sold 8,768 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.80, for a total transaction of $331,430.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 356,605 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,479,669. The trade was a 2.40 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 140,343 shares of company stock valued at $5,177,234. 2.85% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About Exelixis

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.