Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) Director B Lynne Parshall Sells 5,000 Shares of Stock

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS) Director B Lynne Parshall sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.27, for a total transaction of $381,350.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 51,344 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,916,006.88. This represents a 8.87% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

B Lynne Parshall also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Wednesday, February 11th, B Lynne Parshall sold 5,000 shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $82.72, for a total transaction of $413,600.00.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

IONS stock opened at $75.71 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $76.85 and its 200 day simple moving average is $76.92. The company has a current ratio of 3.83, a quick ratio of 3.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.76. Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has a 12-month low of $27.90 and a 12-month high of $86.74. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.51 billion, a PE ratio of -31.03 and a beta of 0.40.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The company reported ($1.41) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.23) by ($0.18). Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 68.82% and a negative net margin of 40.36%.The business had revenue of $203.33 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $156.07 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($0.66) EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post -3.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in IONS. Stanley Laman Group Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the third quarter worth $2,340,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 66.1% in the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 862,593 shares of the company’s stock worth $56,431,000 after buying an additional 343,409 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 1,669.0% during the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 312,297 shares of the company’s stock valued at $20,430,000 after acquiring an additional 294,643 shares during the period. Dynasty Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the third quarter valued at about $938,000. Finally, Capricorn Fund Managers Ltd bought a new position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the third quarter worth about $10,650,000. 93.86% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

IONS has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Wednesday, February 25th. Morgan Stanley set a $95.00 price target on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 25th. HC Wainwright increased their price objective on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $110.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 25th. Raymond James Financial began coverage on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Friday, April 10th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $104.00 target price for the company. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $73.00 to $77.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Seventeen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $94.37.

About Ionis Pharmaceuticals

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc is a biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of RNA-targeted therapies designed to modulate gene expression. The company’s proprietary antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) technology enables the selective binding of short synthetic strands of nucleic acids to messenger RNA (mRNA), thereby inhibiting or altering the production of disease-causing proteins. Ionis’ pipeline spans a range of therapeutic areas, including neurological disorders, cardiovascular conditions, metabolic diseases and rare genetic disorders.

Since its founding in 1989 by Dr.