Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL) Trading Up 6.7% Following Analyst Upgrade

Exelixis, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXEL - Get Free Report)'s share price traded up 6.7% during mid-day trading on Wednesday after Barclays raised their price target on the stock from $25.00 to $29.00. Barclays currently has an equal weight rating on the stock. Exelixis traded as high as $35.37 and last traded at $35.01. 649,341 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 73% from the average session volume of 2,427,834 shares. The stock had previously closed at $32.81.

A number of other brokerages have also recently issued reports on EXEL. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on shares of Exelixis from $37.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Oppenheimer cut shares of Exelixis from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating and cut their price target for the company from $41.00 to $33.00 in a report on Friday, January 24th. TD Cowen upped their price target on shares of Exelixis from $27.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. BMO Capital Markets downgraded shares of Exelixis from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating and upped their price target for the company from $36.00 to $40.00 in a report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Bank of America lowered shares of Exelixis from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and increased their price target for the stock from $35.00 to $39.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $37.24.

Insider Transactions at Exelixis

In other news, EVP Patrick J. Haley sold 41,588 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.36, for a total transaction of $1,428,963.68. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 288,665 shares in the company, valued at $9,918,529.40. This trade represents a 12.59 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Jeffrey Hessekiel sold 60,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.67, for a total value of $2,200,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 486,059 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $17,823,783.53. This represents a 10.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 111,588 shares of company stock valued at $3,981,864. 2.85% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Exelixis

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. CWM LLC boosted its stake in shares of Exelixis by 73.3% in the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 34,643 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $899,000 after buying an additional 14,655 shares in the last quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC acquired a new stake in Exelixis during the third quarter worth about $30,000. Inspire Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Exelixis by 24.9% in the third quarter. Inspire Advisors LLC now owns 25,207 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $654,000 after buying an additional 5,023 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its holdings in Exelixis by 54.2% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 6,094 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $158,000 after purchasing an additional 2,141 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Friedenthal Financial purchased a new position in Exelixis in the third quarter valued at about $744,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.27% of the company's stock.

Exelixis Stock Performance

The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $34.19 and a 200 day simple moving average of $30.88. The company has a market cap of $10.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.44, a P/E/G ratio of 0.63 and a beta of 0.53.

Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The biotechnology company reported $0.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.51 by ($0.03). Exelixis had a net margin of 22.43% and a return on equity of 20.99%. Equities research analysts expect that Exelixis, Inc. will post 1.74 EPS for the current year.

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.