One-glance verdict
Within fair range
$48.88 our estimate vs market $44.90
Wall Street consensus: $83.82 (71.5% higher than our fair-value estimate)
8% below our estimate
Fundamentals snapshot
Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
IONS · NMS · Healthcare · Biotechnology
Current price
$44.90
52-week range
$44.20 - $86.74
Market cap
$7.46B
Balance sheet
Distressed
-4.53x Concerning
Net debt $86.67M. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
2 Rewards
2 Risks
2 rewards · 2 risks
- Reward Revenue grew 329.9% last year.
- Reward Free cash flow was positive in 5/10 years.
- Risk Return on equity was -105.5% last year — the company lost money on shareholders' equity.
- Risk Insider ownership is only 0.6% (peer median: 3.7%).
What this company does
Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Ionis Pharmaceuticals is a biotech company that creates medicines for rare genetic diseases, earning money from its approved drugs like SPINRAZA and from partnerships with larger pharmaceutical companies. The company's future success depends on its many experimental drugs passing clinical trials (studies to test a drug's safety and effectiveness), as this long and expensive process is key to bringing new treatments to patients.
How the company got here
Ionis was founded in 1989 with a focus on a new type of medicine called RNA-targeted therapy. For many years, the company focused on research, forming partnerships with larger drug companies to help fund its work. A key turning point came in 2016 with the approval of SPINRAZA, a successful treatment for a rare and severe genetic disease, which proved its technology could create important medicines. Originally named Isis Pharmaceuticals, the company changed its name to Ionis in 2015. More recently, Ionis has started to sell its own medicines directly, shifting its strategy to become a more independent company.
What it actually does
Ionis develops medicines that work by targeting RNA, a messenger molecule in our bodies that carries instructions from our DNA to create proteins. Think of it like intercepting a specific faulty message before it can cause a problem. This approach, called antisense technology, allows Ionis to design drugs that can reduce the production of disease-causing proteins. The company focuses on creating treatments for serious conditions, particularly in neurology (diseases of the brain and nerves) and cardiometabolic diseases (like heart and cholesterol disorders), many of which are rare and have limited treatment options.
Commercial Product Revenue
This is a growing part of Ionis's business and includes direct sales of drugs it markets on its own or with a partner. For example, the company sells medicines like WAINUA for a nerve disorder and TRYNGOLZA for a rare cholesterol condition. When Ionis sells a drug itself, it keeps all the revenue (the total money earned from sales). This is different from its partnership model and is a key part of its strategy to become a more self-sufficient commercial company.
Royalties from Partnered Medicines
A significant way Ionis makes money is by earning royalties (a percentage of sales paid to the inventor) from medicines it discovered but are sold by larger pharmaceutical partners. For instance, the drug SPINRAZA is marketed by its partner Biogen, which pays Ionis a share of the sales. This model allows Ionis to get its medicines to patients globally by using the large sales teams of its partners, while providing Ionis with a steady stream of income without the cost of marketing every drug itself.
R&D and Licensing Revenue
Ionis also earns money by collaborating with other drug companies to discover and develop new medicines. Partners like AstraZeneca, Novartis, and Roche pay Ionis for access to its technology and for hitting certain research goals. These payments can be large, one-time fees, known as milestone payments, which the company receives when a new drug successfully moves through different stages of testing and development. This provides the cash Ionis needs to fund its own research on future medicines.
What management is betting on now
Management's main focus is transforming Ionis from a research-focused company into one that launches and sells its own products. They are investing heavily in building their own commercial team to market new drugs for rare diseases in neurology and cardiology directly to doctors and patients. The goal is to keep more of the profits from their inventions and build a sustainable business with growing product sales. At the same time, they continue to develop their large pipeline (the group of experimental drugs in development) and form strategic partnerships for drugs outside their main focus areas.
Price history
How the share price has moved
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Loading price history…
Earnings history
Last 8 quarters — what happened
Click any quarter to read the call summary and what the numbers say.
FY2024 Q3
$-124.05M
FY2024 Q4
$-141.64M
FY2025 Q1
$-163.35M
FY2025 Q2
$139.03M
FY2025 Q3
$-136.71M
FY2025 Q4
$-159.00M
FY2026 Q1
$-814.58M
FY2026 Q2
$549.45M
Revenue
$267.95M
Net income
$-114.65M
Diluted EPS
-0.69
Operating cash flow
$565.53M
Free cash flow
$549.45M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$246.09M
Net income
$-92.53M
Diluted EPS
-0.56
Operating cash flow
$-792.82M
Free cash flow
$-814.58M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$203.33M
Net income
$-229.39M
Diluted EPS
-1.41
Operating cash flow
$-137.71M
Free cash flow
$-159.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$156.72M
Net income
$-128.61M
Diluted EPS
-0.80
Operating cash flow
$-131.44M
Free cash flow
$-136.71M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$452.05M
Net income
$123.55M
Diluted EPS
0.70
Operating cash flow
$151.34M
Free cash flow
$139.03M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$131.61M
Net income
$-146.94M
Diluted EPS
-0.93
Operating cash flow
$-150.78M
Free cash flow
$-163.35M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$226.58M
Net income
$-104.35M
Diluted EPS
-0.66
Operating cash flow
$-116.14M
Free cash flow
$-141.64M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$133.81M
Net income
$-140.48M
Diluted EPS
-0.95
Operating cash flow
$-114.99M
Free cash flow
$-124.05M
Fetching…
Sources
Is it cheap or expensive?
Fair value $48.88 vs current price $44.90
Wall Street consensus is the average analyst price target: $83.82 (71.5% higher than our fair-value estimate).
Our most-likely fair value is $48.88 a share — about 8.9% away from today's price of $44.90, so the stock currently looks fairly priced.
Is it drowning in debt?
Distressed
Net debt $86.7M. Interest coverage -4.5x.
Net debt
$86.67M
Interest coverage
-4.53x
Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc.'s profit covers its interest bill about 0.0 times over. which is weaker than most peers shown here and 2 peers sit below 1x, which is the danger zone where profit does not fully cover the interest bill.
Distressed
Worse cushion
Baseline
Better cushion
IONS
BASELINE
Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Total debt $2.19B Interest coverage -4.53x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $2.99B Interest coverage 1.99x This peer still has a real interest-payment cushion, while IONS does not.
Total debt $1.38B Interest coverage 1.10x This peer still has a real interest-payment cushion, while IONS does not.
Total debt $1.06B Interest coverage -17.25x Neither company has much profit cushion over interest right now.
Total debt $8.36B Interest coverage 9.23x This peer still has a real interest-payment cushion, while IONS does not.
Total debt $362.46M Interest coverage -45.12x Neither company has much profit cushion over interest right now.
What you should know
The case for and against IONS
2 Rewards
2 Risks
Rewards
-
Revenue grew 329.9% last year.
-
Free cash flow was positive in 5/10 years.
Risks
-
Return on equity was -105.5% last year — the company lost money on shareholders' equity.
-
Insider ownership is only 0.6% (peer median: 3.7%).
The numbers
All the key metrics, grouped by purpose
Tap any ? icon to learn what it means.
Valuation
How expensive the stock looks
P/E (TTM)
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Forward P/E
-40.37x
P/B
16.91x
P/S
8.54x
EV/EBITDA
-13.03x
PEG ratio
27.33x
Profitability
How much profit each dollar creates
Gross margin
-6.9%
Operating margin
-38.2%
Net margin
-64.7%
ROE
-105.5%
ROA
-12.4%
Health
Liquidity and balance-sheet strength
Debt / equity
4.98x
Current ratio
7.89x
Quick ratio
6.85x
Total debt
$2.19B
Total cash
$2.10B
Growth
How the business has been compounding
Revenue TTM
$874.09M
Revenue 5Y CAGR
-29.2%
EPS TTM
-3.48
EPS 5Y CAGR
—
Cash flow
How much cash the business throws off
Operating CF TTM
$-496.43M
Free CF TTM
$-320.03M
FCF margin
-36.6%
Dividend
Shareholder payout
Yield
—
Payout ratio
0.0%
Last ex-div date
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