Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS) Short Interest Up 18.4% in January

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS - Get Free Report) saw a large growth in short interest in January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 12,120,000 shares, a growth of 18.4% from the January 15th total of 10,240,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,540,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 7.9 days. Currently, 7.9% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on IONS. Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating and set a $60.00 price objective on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $70.00 target price on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $82.00 to $77.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 7th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Finally, William Blair reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a report on Friday, December 20th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $60.65.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Price Performance

IONS traded down $0.14 on Wednesday, hitting $31.81. 3,382,392 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,646,775. 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 8.91, a quick ratio of 8.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.86. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $33.82 and a 200-day moving average price of $38.50. The stock has a market cap of $5.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -13.04 and a beta of 0.34.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The company reported ($0.66) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($1.12) by $0.46. The firm had revenue of $227.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $140.97 million. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative net margin of 44.58% and a negative return on equity of 88.98%. The company's 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. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Ionis Pharmaceuticals will post -3.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ionis Pharmaceuticals news, Director Michael R. Hayden acquired 5,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $36.22 per share, for a total transaction of $181,100.00. Following the purchase, the director now owns 35,219 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,275,632.18. The trade was a 16.55 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Brett P. Monia sold 38,843 shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.65, for a total transaction of $1,229,380.95. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 110,609 shares of company stock worth $3,564,867 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 2.71% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of IONS. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the third quarter valued at about $297,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 83.9% in the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 664 shares of the company's stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 303 shares during the last quarter. Creative Planning lifted its position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 5.7% in the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 28,382 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,137,000 after buying an additional 1,522 shares during the last quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC lifted its position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 2.1% in the third quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 16,678 shares of the company's stock valued at $668,000 after buying an additional 338 shares during the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 3,287.0% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 328,772 shares of the company's stock valued at $13,171,000 after buying an additional 319,065 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.86% of the company's stock.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

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.