Some Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS) Analysts Just Made A Major Cut To Next Year's Estimates

The latest analyst coverage could presage a bad day for Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS), with the analysts making across-the-board cuts to their statutory estimates that might leave shareholders a little shell-shocked. Both revenue and earnings per share (EPS) forecasts went under the knife, suggesting the analysts have soured majorly on the business.

Following the latest downgrade, the current consensus, from the 17 analysts covering Ionis Pharmaceuticals, is for revenues of US$580m in 2022, which would reflect an uneasy 12% reduction in Ionis Pharmaceuticals' sales over the past 12 months. The loss per share is anticipated to greatly reduce in the near future, narrowing 43% to US$2.48. Yet prior to the latest estimates, the analysts had been forecasting revenues of US$660m and losses of US$2.03 per share in 2022. So there's been quite a change-up of views after the recent consensus updates, with the analysts making a serious cut to their revenue forecasts while also expecting losses per share to increase.

View our latest analysis for Ionis Pharmaceuticals

Taking a look at the bigger picture now, one of the ways we can understand these forecasts is to see how they compare to both past performance and industry growth estimates. We would highlight that sales are expected to reverse, with a forecast 12% annualised revenue decline to the end of 2022. That is a notable change from historical growth of 15% over the last five years. By contrast, our data suggests that other companies (with analyst coverage) in the same industry are forecast to see their revenue grow 13% annually for the foreseeable future. It's pretty clear that Ionis Pharmaceuticals' revenues are expected to perform substantially worse than the wider industry.

The Bottom Line

The most important thing to take away is that analysts increased their loss per share estimates for this year. Unfortunately analysts also downgraded their revenue estimates, and industry data suggests that Ionis Pharmaceuticals' revenues are expected to grow slower than the wider market. We wouldn't be surprised to find shareholders feeling a bit shell-shocked, after these downgrades. It looks like analysts have become a lot more bearish on Ionis Pharmaceuticals, and their negativity could be grounds for caution.

With that said, the long-term trajectory of the company's earnings is a lot more important than next year. We have estimates - from multiple Ionis Pharmaceuticals analysts - going out to 2024, and you can see them free on our platform here.

Of course, seeing company management invest large sums of money in a stock can be just as useful as knowing whether analysts are downgrading their estimates. So you may also wish to search this free list of stocks that insiders are buying.

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