Piper Jaffray analyst Joshua Schimmer reiterated an Overweight rating and raised his price target on Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: IONS) to $46.00 (from $36.00) following Q2 earnings and an update on its antisense pipeline.

Schimmer commented, "The company provided some color on nusinersen for the treatment of infants with Type I spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) as it transitions the program to Biogen, ahead of regulatory applications in the U.S. and E.U. in the coming months. The second half of 2016 holds multiple catalysts for IONS as it shifts its pipeline towards lica and generation 2.5 chemistry and advances its programs toward a regulatory pathway. The company affirmed its financial guidance and reported cash and cash equivalents totaling $664M. We reiterate our OW rating and increase our PT from $35 to $46 as we increase the nusinersen royalty to reflect increases we made to sales in our BIIB model (our terminal growth assumption was lowered from 7% to 6.5% and the discount rate of 11.5% is unchanged)."

For an analyst ratings summary and ratings history on Ionis Pharmaceuticals click here. For more ratings news on Ionis Pharmaceuticals click here.

Shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals closed at $36.33 yesterday.