Artemis Investment Management LLP Boosts Stake in Exact Sciences Co. (NASDAQ:EXAS)

Artemis Investment Management LLP raised its stake in Exact Sciences Co. (NASDAQ:EXAS - Free Report) by 139.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 255,842 shares of the medical research company's stock after acquiring an additional 149,067 shares during the quarter. Artemis Investment Management LLP owned approximately 0.14% of Exact Sciences worth $14,376,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new position in shares of Exact Sciences in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $327,000. Merit Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in Exact Sciences in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $235,000. Avanza Fonder AB bought a new position in shares of Exact Sciences during the fourth quarter valued at $1,096,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in shares of Exact Sciences by 130.6% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 22,801 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $1,281,000 after purchasing an additional 12,912 shares during the period. Finally, Kieckhefer Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Exact Sciences in the fourth quarter worth $188,000. 88.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Exact Sciences news, CEO Kevin T. Conroy purchased 19,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $51.35 per share, with a total value of $1,001,325.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,074,191 shares of the company's stock, valued at $55,159,707.85. The trade was a 1.85 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 1.36% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Benchmark restated a "buy" rating and set a $65.00 price objective on shares of Exact Sciences in a research report on Monday, January 13th. BTIG Research raised their price target on shares of Exact Sciences from $65.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on shares of Exact Sciences from $75.00 to $65.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Evercore ISI lowered their target price on shares of Exact Sciences from $80.00 to $60.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on shares of Exact Sciences from $70.00 to $67.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $72.94.

Exact Sciences Stock Up 2.6 %

Shares of Exact Sciences stock traded up $1.30 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $51.74. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,930,977 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,384,925. The company has a market capitalization of $9.58 billion, a P/E ratio of -44.22 and a beta of 1.24. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $57.15 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $59.26. Exact Sciences Co. has a one year low of $40.62 and a one year high of $79.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 1.93 and a current ratio of 2.12.

Exact Sciences (NASDAQ:EXAS - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The medical research company reported ($0.21) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.20) by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $708.66 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $716.80 million. Exact Sciences had a negative net margin of 7.95% and a negative return on equity of 6.17%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 12.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Exact Sciences Co. will post -1.1 earnings per share for the current year.

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.