William Blair Investment Management LLC Lowers Stock Holdings in Exact Sciences Co. (NASDAQ:EXAS)

William Blair Investment Management LLC lowered its position in shares of Exact Sciences Co. (NASDAQ:EXAS) by 19.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,444,511 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 840,442 shares during the period. William Blair Investment Management LLC owned approximately 1.86% of Exact Sciences worth $193,547,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Huntington National Bank lifted its stake in shares of Exact Sciences by 838.1% during the 3rd quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 394 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 352 shares in the last quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new position in Exact Sciences during the 3rd quarter valued at about $34,000. Asset Planning Inc bought a new position in Exact Sciences during the 4th quarter valued at about $40,000. Modus Advisors LLC bought a new position in Exact Sciences in the 4th quarter worth about $43,000. Finally, AlphaQuest LLC grew its stake in Exact Sciences by 22,825.0% in the 4th quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 917 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $52,000 after acquiring an additional 913 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 88.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

EXAS has been the subject of several research reports. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on shares of Exact Sciences from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Scotiabank upped their price target on shares of Exact Sciences from $70.00 to $73.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, February 24th. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Exact Sciences in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Royal Bank of Canada began coverage on shares of Exact Sciences in a research note on Thursday. They issued a “sector perform” rating and a $52.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of Exact Sciences from $82.00 to $86.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $70.83.

Exact Sciences Stock Performance

Shares of EXAS opened at $45.00 on Monday. Exact Sciences Co. has a 1 year low of $40.62 and a 1 year high of $79.62. The company has a market cap of $8.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -8.08 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 1.93 and a current ratio of 2.15. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $51.73 and a 200-day moving average of $58.82.

Exact Sciences (NASDAQ:EXAS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The medical research company reported ($0.06) EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.29) by $0.23. Exact Sciences had a negative net margin of 37.29% and a negative return on equity of 5.29%. The firm had revenue of $713.42 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $701.45 million. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Exact Sciences Co. will post -0.58 earnings per share for the current year.

About Exact Sciences

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.