Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Acquires 400 Shares of Exact Sciences Co. (NASDAQ:EXAS)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its position in Exact Sciences Co. (NASDAQ:EXAS) by 3.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 11,747 shares of the medical research company’s stock after buying an additional 400 shares during the quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in Exact Sciences were worth $869,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Exact Sciences by 172.0% in the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 328,317 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $22,398,000 after buying an additional 207,623 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in shares of Exact Sciences by 1.6% in the third quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 18,858 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,310,000 after buying an additional 293 shares during the last quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership lifted its stake in shares of Exact Sciences by 11.8% in the third quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 3,961,514 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $270,254,000 after buying an additional 418,770 shares during the last quarter. New York Life Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Exact Sciences by 103.6% in the third quarter. New York Life Investment Management LLC now owns 20,092 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,371,000 after buying an additional 10,223 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Aviva PLC lifted its stake in shares of Exact Sciences by 383.0% in the third quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 107,054 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $7,303,000 after buying an additional 84,888 shares during the last quarter. 88.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Exact Sciences

In other news, EVP Sarah Condella sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.00, for a total value of $140,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 71,787 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,025,090. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Exact Sciences news, General Counsel James Herriott sold 415 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.50, for a total transaction of $25,522.50. Following the sale, the general counsel now owns 6,943 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $426,994.50. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Sarah Condella sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.00, for a total transaction of $140,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 71,787 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,025,090. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 69,113 shares of company stock valued at $4,165,273. 1.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Exact Sciences Stock Down 0.5 %

EXAS opened at $63.24 on Thursday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $63.53 and its 200-day simple moving average is $65.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 2.07 and a current ratio of 2.32. Exact Sciences Co. has a twelve month low of $56.05 and a twelve month high of $100.77. The firm has a market cap of $11.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -55.47 and a beta of 1.25.

Exact Sciences (NASDAQ:EXAS) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The medical research company reported ($0.27) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.53) by $0.26. Exact Sciences had a negative net margin of 8.17% and a negative return on equity of 6.60%. The business had revenue of $646.89 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $638.83 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.72) EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 17.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Exact Sciences Co. will post -0.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Citigroup restated a “buy” rating and issued a $100.00 price objective on shares of Exact Sciences in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Exact Sciences in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. Canaccord Genuity Group cut their target price on shares of Exact Sciences from $100.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. TheStreet cut shares of Exact Sciences from a “c-” rating to a “d+” rating in a research note on Monday, February 26th. Finally, Benchmark upgraded shares of Exact Sciences from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $91.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 2nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Exact Sciences presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $97.44.

Exact Sciences Company 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.