Needham & Company LLC Reaffirms Buy Rating for Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS)

Needham & Company LLC reissued their buy rating on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS - Free Report) in a research report sent to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $60.00 price target on the stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on IONS. Leerink Partners upgraded shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $53.00 to $62.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Leerink Partnrs upgraded shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. TD Cowen lifted their target price on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $54.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $33.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a "sell" rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $45.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ionis Pharmaceuticals currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $60.71.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Trading Down 1.4 %

Shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals stock traded down $0.53 during trading on Thursday, reaching $38.51. 570,742 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,317,579. The stock's fifty day moving average is $41.05 and its 200 day moving average is $42.96. The firm has a market cap of $5.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -15.64 and a beta of 0.39. The company has a quick ratio of 7.51, a current ratio of 7.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.67. Ionis Pharmaceuticals has a 1 year low of $35.95 and a 1 year high of $54.44.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported ($0.95) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($1.16) by $0.21. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative net margin of 44.90% and a negative return on equity of 115.66%. The company had revenue of $134.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $128.99 million. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Ionis Pharmaceuticals will post -3.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Ionis Pharmaceuticals

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of IONS. nVerses Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the 2nd quarter valued at about $29,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake 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. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. acquired a new stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the second quarter worth about $37,000. Mather Group LLC. grew its stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 35.8% during the second quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 911 shares of the company's stock worth $39,000 after acquiring an additional 240 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the third quarter valued at about $40,000. 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.