Sanders Morris Harris LLC Cuts Stock Position in Exact Sciences Co. (NASDAQ:EXAS)

Sanders Morris Harris LLC cut its holdings in shares of Exact Sciences Co. (NASDAQ:EXAS) by 4.0% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 4,800 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 200 shares during the quarter. Sanders Morris Harris LLC’s holdings in Exact Sciences were worth $270,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in Exact Sciences by 130.6% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 22,801 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,281,000 after purchasing an additional 12,912 shares during the period. Kieckhefer Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Exact Sciences during the fourth quarter worth about $188,000. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Exact Sciences by 35.3% during the fourth quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 95,827 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $5,385,000 after buying an additional 24,992 shares in the last quarter. Diversified Trust Co grew its position in shares of Exact Sciences by 5.9% during the fourth quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 12,639 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $710,000 after buying an additional 708 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Everence Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Exact Sciences in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $356,000. 88.82% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on EXAS shares. Piper Sandler cut their price target on Exact Sciences from $85.00 to $75.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Craig Hallum reduced their target price on Exact Sciences from $82.00 to $65.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Evercore ISI lowered their target price on shares of Exact Sciences from $80.00 to $60.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Benchmark reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $65.00 price target on shares of Exact Sciences in a research report on Monday. Finally, Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on Exact Sciences from $70.00 to $67.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $72.94.

Exact Sciences Trading Down 3.1 %

NASDAQ EXAS traded down $1.68 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $51.84. 156,431 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,184,990. The business’s 50 day moving average is $57.20 and its 200-day moving average is $59.03. Exact Sciences Co. has a 12-month low of $40.62 and a 12-month high of $79.62. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.59 billion, a P/E ratio of -44.31 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 1.93 and a current ratio of 2.12.

Exact Sciences (NASDAQ:EXAS) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The medical research company reported ($0.21) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.20) by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $708.66 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $716.80 million. Exact Sciences had a negative return on equity of 6.17% and a negative net margin of 7.95%. The company’s revenue was up 12.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Exact Sciences Co. will post -1.1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Exact Sciences

In other Exact Sciences news, CEO Kevin T. Conroy acquired 19,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $51.35 per share, for a total transaction of $1,001,325.00. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,074,191 shares in the company, valued at $55,159,707.85. This trade represents a 1.85 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 1.36% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.