Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Raises Holdings in Exact Sciences Co. (NASDAQ:EXAS)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Exact Sciences Co. (NASDAQ:EXAS) by 2.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 14,447 shares of the medical research company’s stock after acquiring an additional 300 shares during the quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in Exact Sciences were worth $812,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

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

Exact Sciences Stock Up 4.6 %

EXAS stock opened at $45.00 on Friday. Exact Sciences Co. has a twelve month low of $40.62 and a twelve month 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 $8.36 billion, a PE ratio of -8.08 and a beta of 1.25. The business has a 50 day moving average of $51.73 and a 200 day moving average of $58.84.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on EXAS. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Exact Sciences in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Bank of America lowered their price target on Exact Sciences from $72.00 to $65.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $65.00 price target on shares of Exact Sciences in a research report on Monday, January 13th. TD Cowen upped their price target on Exact Sciences from $82.00 to $86.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, BTIG Research upped their price target on Exact Sciences from $65.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $70.83.

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.