Dimensional Fund Advisors LP Sells 24,120 Shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS)

Posted by MarketBeat News on Mar 5th, 2023

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP cut its stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS – Get Rating) by 4.1% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 560,928 shares of the company’s stock after selling 24,120 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP’s holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals were worth $24,810,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 4.9% in the second quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 15,056,046 shares of the company’s stock worth $557,375,000 after acquiring an additional 705,586 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 0.8% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,099,034 shares of the company’s stock worth $448,148,000 after buying an additional 91,958 shares during the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 10.1% during the first quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 6,476,033 shares of the company’s stock worth $239,872,000 after buying an additional 593,051 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 4.1% during the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,137,827 shares of the company’s stock worth $42,145,000 after buying an additional 44,388 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 9.2% during the second quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,041,824 shares of the company’s stock worth $38,569,000 after buying an additional 87,498 shares during the last quarter. 87.32% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Eric Swayze sold 1,815 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.79, for a total value of $74,033.85. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 31,941 shares in the company, valued at $1,302,873.39. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, EVP Eric Swayze sold 1,815 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.79, for a total transaction of $74,033.85. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 31,941 shares in the company, valued at $1,302,873.39. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Joseph Klein III sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.00, for a total transaction of $80,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 16,791 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $671,640. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 74,022 shares of company stock worth $2,961,208 over the last quarter. 2.36% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Want More Great Investing Ideas?

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $65.00 price target on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Thursday, February 23rd. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $70.00 to $67.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 23rd. SVB Leerink dropped their price target on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $34.00 to $27.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 23rd. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $60.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 19th. Finally, Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $28.00 to $31.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $46.45.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Stock Up 2.2 %

Ionis Pharmaceuticals stock opened at $36.60 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.23 billion, a PE ratio of -19.26 and a beta of 0.57. Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has a twelve month low of $31.46 and a twelve month high of $48.82. The company has a quick ratio of 7.00, a current ratio of 7.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.06. The company has a 50 day moving average of $38.71 and a 200-day moving average of $41.54.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 22nd. The company reported ($0.37) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($1.06) by $0.69. The company had revenue of $152.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $160.21 million. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative net margin of 45.75% and a negative return on equity of 43.01%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 65.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.41 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post -2.81 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

(Get Rating)

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc engages in the development and commercialization of human therapeutic drugs using antisense technology. It operates through the Ionis Core and Akcea Therapeutics segments. The Ionis Core segment exploits a novel drug discovery platform to generate a pipeline of drugs. The Akcea Therapeutics segment develops and commercializes drugs for cardiometabolic diseases.