Vanguard Group Inc. Cuts Stock Position in Exact Sciences Co. (NASDAQ:EXAS)

Vanguard Group Inc. decreased its position in shares of Exact Sciences Co. (NASDAQ:EXAS) by 4.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 17,020,290 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 743,624 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned 9.20% of Exact Sciences worth $956,370,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Groupama Asset Managment acquired a new position in shares of Exact Sciences during the third quarter worth $821,000. ArrowMark Colorado Holdings LLC purchased a new position in Exact Sciences during the 3rd quarter worth $28,608,000. Iron Triangle Partners LP acquired a new position in Exact Sciences during the 3rd quarter valued at about $27,239,000. Erste Asset Management GmbH purchased a new stake in Exact Sciences in the third quarter valued at about $26,546,000. Finally, Bellevue Group AG boosted its holdings in Exact Sciences by 25.1% in the third quarter. Bellevue Group AG now owns 1,449,465 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $98,738,000 after acquiring an additional 290,585 shares in the last quarter. 88.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on EXAS shares. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Exact Sciences from $70.00 to $65.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 20th. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Exact Sciences in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Royal Bank of Canada assumed coverage on shares of Exact Sciences in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. They set a “sector perform” rating and a $52.00 price objective for the company. Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $65.00 target price on shares of Exact Sciences in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Piper Sandler lowered their price target on Exact Sciences from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $70.26.

Exact Sciences Trading Down 3.0 %

EXAS stock opened at $43.66 on Friday. Exact Sciences Co. has a 52-week low of $40.62 and a 52-week high of $79.62. The company has a quick ratio of 1.93, a current ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.97. The firm has a market cap of $8.11 billion, a P/E ratio of -7.84 and a beta of 1.25. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $49.71 and its 200-day simple moving average is $57.80.

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

Exact Sciences 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.