Morningstar Investment Management LLC Takes Position in Exelixis, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXEL)

Morningstar Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Exelixis, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXEL) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 6,624 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock, valued at approximately $221,000.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Principal Securities Inc. raised its position in shares of Exelixis by 62.8% during the fourth quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 967 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 373 shares during the last quarter. USA Financial Formulas acquired a new position in shares of Exelixis during the fourth quarter valued at about $32,000. Kestra Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in Exelixis in the fourth quarter valued at about $39,000. UMB Bank n.a. increased its stake in Exelixis by 68.4% in the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 1,361 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $45,000 after acquiring an additional 553 shares during the period. Finally, V Square Quantitative Management LLC increased its stake in Exelixis by 37.3% in the fourth quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 1,563 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $52,000 after acquiring an additional 425 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.27% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $40.00 target price on shares of Exelixis in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. BMO Capital Markets cut shares of Exelixis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and upped their target price for the company from $36.00 to $40.00 in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of Exelixis from $37.00 to $38.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $42.00 target price on shares of Exelixis in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Exelixis from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Exelixis has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $37.24.

Insider Buying and Selling at Exelixis

In other news, EVP Jeffrey Hessekiel sold 60,000 shares of Exelixis stock in a transaction on Friday, November 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.67, for a total transaction of $2,200,200.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 486,059 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,823,783.53. This trade represents a 10.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Mary C. Beckerle sold 12,210 shares of Exelixis stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.88, for a total transaction of $425,884.80. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 30,406 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,060,561.28. This represents a 28.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 82,210 shares of company stock valued at $2,978,785. 2.85% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Exelixis Price Performance

Shares of Exelixis stock opened at $35.07 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $9.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.81, a P/E/G ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 0.53. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $34.16 and a 200 day simple moving average of $31.11. Exelixis, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $20.14 and a fifty-two week high of $37.59.

Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 11th. The biotechnology company reported $0.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by ($0.03). Exelixis had a net margin of 24.04% and a return on equity of 23.52%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Exelixis, Inc. will post 2.04 EPS for the current year.

About Exelixis

Exelixis, Inc, an oncology company, focuses on the discovery, development, and commercialization of new medicines for difficult-to-treat cancers in the United States. The company offers CABOMETYX tablets for the treatment of patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma who received prior anti-angiogenic therapy; and COMETRIQ capsules for the treatment of progressive and metastatic medullary thyroid cancer.