Clearbridge Investments LLC Has $193.61 Million Holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS)

Clearbridge Investments LLC cut its position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS) by 5.1% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,466,191 shares of the company’s stock after selling 241,289 shares during the quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC owned about 3.06% of Ionis Pharmaceuticals worth $193,609,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of IONS. Pingora Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the fourth quarter worth $25,000. GAMMA Investing LLC acquired a new stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Mather Group LLC. acquired a new stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the first quarter worth $29,000. Tennessee Valley Asset Management Partners acquired a new stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the fourth quarter worth $34,000. Finally, Sunbelt Securities Inc. acquired a new stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the first quarter worth $44,000. 93.86% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

IONS has been the subject of a number of research reports. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $54.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $75.00 price objective on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $50.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 27th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $58.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $60.06.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

IONS stock traded down $0.18 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $50.43. The company had a trading volume of 1,385,120 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,217,619. The firm has a market cap of $7.36 billion, a PE ratio of -18.89 and a beta of 0.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.15, a quick ratio of 7.28 and a current ratio of 7.37. Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has a 12 month low of $35.95 and a 12 month high of $54.44. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $42.74 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $44.46.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 7th. The company reported ($0.98) EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($1.10) by $0.12. The business had revenue of $119.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $131.42 million. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative net margin of 49.49% and a negative return on equity of 107.64%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 9.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.87) earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post -3.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Joseph Klein III sold 6,000 shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.71, for a total value of $256,260.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 16,346 shares in the company, valued at $698,137.66. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 2.71% of the company’s stock.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

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.