Legal & General Group Plc Invests $23.72 Million in Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. $IONS

Posted by Brian Himes on Aug 30th, 2026

Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS – Free Report) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 299,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,722,000. Legal & General Group Plc owned 0.18% of Ionis Pharmaceuticals as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Capital World Investors boosted its position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 41.2% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,961,299 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,420,918,000 after acquiring an additional 5,238,571 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,148,849 shares of the company’s stock valued at $249,158,000 after acquiring an additional 82,560 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 9.5% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,987,840 shares of the company’s stock worth $236,370,000 after purchasing an additional 258,155 shares during the period. Baker BROS. Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 216.1% during the 4th quarter. Baker BROS. Advisors LP now owns 1,791,841 shares of the company’s stock worth $141,753,000 after purchasing an additional 1,225,043 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,541,841 shares of the company’s stock worth $121,975,000 after purchasing an additional 21,890 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.86% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on IONS shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $72.00 to $76.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 3rd. Needham & Company LLC lowered their price target on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $105.00 to $86.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $130.00 to $110.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 10th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $113.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Finally, Citigroup cut their price target on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $115.00 to $100.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Seventeen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ionis Pharmaceuticals has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $94.15.

Get Our Latest Research Report on Ionis Pharmaceuticals

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Trading Down 2.2%

Shares of IONS stock opened at $61.05 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 7.73, a current ratio of 7.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.07. Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $42.13 and a fifty-two week high of $86.74. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $63.05 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $71.38. The stock has a market cap of $10.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -17.64 and a beta of 0.41.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS – Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The company reported ($0.69) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.08) by $0.39. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative net margin of 64.76% and a negative return on equity of 111.08%. The business had revenue of $267.95 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $189.10 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.70 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 40.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post -3.57 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Ionis Pharmaceuticals news, EVP Eugene Schneider sold 26,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.05, for a total value of $2,107,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 77,114 shares in the company, valued at $6,250,089.70. This represents a 25.21% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Michael R. Hayden acquired 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 30th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $53.38 per share, for a total transaction of $800,700.00. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 19,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,014,220. This trade represents a 375.00% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 233,163 shares of company stock worth $18,316,551 in the last ninety days. 1.81% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Profile

(Free Report)

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.