Exact Sciences (EXAS) Stock Today, November 24, 2025: Abbott Buyout Spread, Analyst Downgrades and UBS Target Hike

Dateline: November 24, 2025

Exact Sciences Corporation (NASDAQ: EXAS) stock is trading calmly near its takeover price today as Wall Street digests a flood of fresh analyst calls, legal scrutiny and local reaction to Abbott Laboratories’ multi‑billion‑dollar bid for the cancer‑diagnostics specialist.

With shares hovering around $101 this afternoon and a cash offer on the table at $105 per share, Exact Sciences has effectively shifted from a high‑growth story to a merger‑arbitrage situation — but there’s still plenty happening around the name on November 24, 2025. ^[1]

Key takeaways for EXAS stock on November 24, 2025

Share price: About $101.00, up a fraction on the day, versus Abbott’s all‑cash offer of $105.00 per share. ^[2]
Deal spread: Merger‑arbitrage watchers estimate roughly a 4% upside from Friday’s close to the deal price, or close to 7% annualized if the acquisition closes by mid‑2026. ^[3]
Performance: EXAS is trading near its 52‑week high (~$101.9), up around 80–90% over the past 12 months and roughly 80% year‑to‑date. ^[4]
Today’s big headlines:
- UBS raises its price target to $105 and reiterates a Neutral rating. ^[5]
- Jefferies cuts EXAS to Hold after the Abbott deal, also setting a $105 target. ^[6]
- Benchmark joins the downgrade wave, moving EXAS from Buy to Hold with no target change. ^[7]
- Leerink Partnrs slashes FY2025 EPS estimates and keeps a Hold stance. ^[8]
- Law firm Wohl & Fruchter launches an investigation into the fairness of the Abbott offer. ^[9]
- Local and deal‑focused outlets highlight the impact on Wisconsin and the deal’s rich valuation. ^[10]

Exact Sciences stock price today: trading just below the takeover price

According to Exact Sciences’ own investor relations page, EXAS traded around $101.00 at approximately 3:27 p.m. ET, with: ^[11]

Day’s range: about $100.92 – $101.26
Previous close: $100.90
52‑week range: $38.81 – $101.87

Other data providers show a very similar picture, with today’s range roughly in the low $101 to high‑$100s after opening at $100.92, reinforcing the view that EXAS is now “pinned” close to Abbott’s $105 offer. ^[12]

Over the last year, the stock has delivered a near‑triple‑digit return, with MarketBeat and Investing.com estimating a ~79–90% gain and a YTD move of nearly 80%, largely driven by strengthening fundamentals and, more recently, by the buyout announcement. ^[13]

At today’s price, Exact Sciences carries a market capitalization of roughly $19.1 billion, versus an enterprise‑value figure of about $23 billion implied by the deal terms. ^[14]

All the Exact Sciences stock news breaking today (24 November 2025)

1. UBS lifts Exact Sciences price target to $105, keeps Neutral rating

UBS this morning raised its price target on EXAS from $80 to $105, explicitly tying the new target to Abbott’s agreed cash offer and keeping a Neutral rating on the stock. ^[15]

Key points from the UBS note, as reported by Investing.com:

The $105 target roughly matches the takeover price and sits slightly above today’s trading level (around $101). ^[16]
UBS cites ~90.7% total return over the past year and notes EXAS is trading just below its 52‑week high. ^[17]
The bank assumes the Abbott deal will close by Q2 2026 and sees no significant regulatory hurdles. ^[18]
UBS estimates the transaction values Exact at roughly 6× projected 2026 sales and argues Abbott’s large primary‑care salesforce is a key reason it can extract more value from Exact’s screening portfolio than other potential buyers. ^[19]

UBS also characterizes the deal as a one‑off rather than the start of a sweeping consolidation wave across specialty diagnostics, implying limited read‑through for peers. ^[20]

2. Jefferies downgrades EXAS to Hold after Abbott deal

Jefferies today downgraded EXAS from Buy to Hold, while raising its price target from $90 to $105, matching the takeover price. ^[21]

According to the Reuters‑sourced note carried on TradingView and 24/7 Wall St: ^[22]

Jefferies sees limited upside from here because EXAS is likely to trade in a tight band around the $105 offer while the deal is pending.
The downgrade is framed less as a negative call on the business and more as a shift in risk‑reward, now driven by deal‑completion probability rather than fundamentals alone.

Jefferies joins a growing list of firms that have moved to neutral or equivalent ratings since Abbott’s offer was announced.

3. Benchmark joins the downgrade wave in fresh GuruFocus alert

In another note published this morning, Benchmark analyst Bruce D. Jackson cut Exact Sciences from Buy to Hold, with no change to his existing price target. ^[23]

GuruFocus points out that Benchmark’s move adds to a flurry of rating changes in recent days, including: ^[24]

Barclays: Overweight → Equal Weight; target raised from $77 to $105.
Guggenheim: Buy → Neutral.
William Blair: Outperform → Market Perform.
Wells Fargo: Overweight → Equal Weight; target raised from $85 to $105.
Leerink Partners: previously Outperform, now Market Perform/Hold with a $105 target.

Benchmark also highlights that:

The average 12‑month target across 18 analysts sits around $92–93, implying downside from the current ~$101 level. ^[25]
Consensus ratings have drifted to “Hold”, consistent with MarketBeat’s tally of 2 Strong Buy, 7 Buy, 15 Hold and 1 Sell. ^[26]

4. Leerink Partnrs cuts FY2025 earnings estimates

Beyond ratings, Leerink Partnrs made fresh changes to its numbers today. According to MarketBeat’s instant alert summary, the firm: ^[27]

Reduced FY2025 EPS estimate for Exact Sciences from $0.42 to $0.04, implying much thinner profitability than previously expected.
Forecasts Q4 2025 EPS of –$0.23, reflecting ongoing investment and deal‑related uncertainty.
Maintains a Hold recommendation.

Leerink’s cut comes even though EXAS posted a Q3 EPS of $0.24, beating the Street’s $0.13 consensus, and delivered 20% year‑over‑year revenue growth, suggesting that the lower estimates may reflect cautious assumptions post‑deal rather than immediate operational weakness. ^[28]

5. Merger‑arbitrage lens: “Abbott is paying up” for Exact Sciences

Today’s “Merger Arbitrage Mondays” column from InsideArbitrage zeroes in on the economics of the Abbott–Exact deal. ^[29]

The article notes that:

Abbott’s offer values EXAS at about $23 billion including debt, versus a current market cap near $19.1 billion. ^[30]
Exact Sciences closed Friday at $100.90, implying a 4.06% spread to the $105 offer price.
If the deal closes by mid‑2026, that spread equates to an annualized return of roughly 7% for arbitrage investors willing to take deal‑completion risk. ^[31]

The piece frames Abbott as “paying up” for Exact Sciences, but also points out that, in a low‑yield world, even a mid‑single‑digit spread can attract event‑driven funds — especially when regulatory and antitrust risk appears manageable.

6. Law firm Wohl & Fruchter challenges fairness of the sale price

On the legal front, Wohl & Fruchter LLP announced this morning that it is investigating the fairness of the proposed sale of Exact Sciences to Abbott at $105 per share in cash. ^[32]

In its GlobeNewswire release, the firm says it is examining whether: ^[33]

Exact Sciences’ board of directors acted in the best interests of shareholders in approving the transaction.
The $105 offer adequately reflects the company’s value, especially given its growth profile and pipeline.
All material information about the transaction has been fully and fairly disclosed.

The firm invites current EXAS shareholders who have concerns about the deal to contact it to discuss their rights at no charge. This kind of investigation is relatively common in large cash buyouts, but it underscores that not all investors are convinced the takeover price is high enough.

A separate firm, Halper Sadeh LLC, launched a similar shareholder‑rights campaign over the weekend, reinforcing that legal scrutiny remains a meaningful background factor for the deal. ^[34]

7. Wisconsin reacts: “proof that Wisconsin is a biohealth powerhouse”

Closer to home, Spectrum News 1 in Madison today published a feature on what the roughly $21 billion sale means for Wisconsin’s economy and identity. ^[35]

Highlights include:

Local economic officials call the deal “proof that Wisconsin is a national biohealth powerhouse,” pointing to Exact Sciences as a model of how home‑grown life sciences companies can scale. ^[36]
Officials say they are watching Abbott’s commitments closely, particularly its pledge to maintain research, development and Cologuard manufacturing in Madison after the transaction closes in 2026. ^[37]

Abbott and Exact’s joint press release reinforces that message, saying Exact will remain based in Madison, become an Abbott subsidiary, and that CEO Kevin Conroy will stay on in an advisory role to support the integration. ^[38]

8. Broader deal coverage: healthcare, diagnostics and strategy

Several sector‑focused outlets rounded out today’s coverage with more strategic angles:

Digital health and medtech publications emphasize that the deal gives Abbott a major foothold in the fast‑growing cancer screening and precision oncology market, estimated at roughly $60 billion in the U.S. alone. ^[39]
Healthcare deal round‑ups from firms such as Lawrence, Evans & Co. underline that Exact will become an Abbott subsidiary and that the transaction could lift Abbott’s diagnostics sales above $12 billion annually once closed. ^[40]
Coverage on HealthExec and similar outlets stresses that the acquisition will not be final until it is approved by Exact’s shareholders and regulators, reiterating the standard conditions and timeline for completion in Q2 2026. ^[41]

Deal terms in focus: what Abbott is paying for Exact Sciences

Abbott’s offer for Exact Sciences, announced on November 20, 2025, is one of the largest diagnostics deals in years. ^[42]

Core terms:

Price: $105 in cash per EXAS share.
Equity value: about $21 billion.
Enterprise value (equity plus net debt): around $23 billion, including roughly $1.8 billion of net debt. ^[43]
Premium: roughly 22% to EXAS’s last close before the announcement and about 50% to its price before media reports of a possible deal, according to UBS. ^[44]
Closing timeline: expected in Q2 2026, subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals. ^[45]

Strategic rationale (from Abbott and Exact):

Abbott gains a leading position in cancer screening and precision oncology diagnostics, including:
- Cologuard® and Cologuard Plus™: non‑invasive stool‑based colorectal cancer screening tests. ^[46]
- Oncotype DX®: genomic tests that inform chemotherapy decisions in early‑stage breast cancer and other tumors. ^[47]
- Cancerguard™: a multi‑cancer early detection (MCED) blood test launched this year. ^[48]
- Oncodetect™ and OncoExTra®: tests for molecular residual disease (MRD) and comprehensive genomic profiling. ^[49]
Abbott expects the deal to be immediately accretive to revenue growth and gross margin, though initially dilutive to EPS before turning accretive in 2027. ^[50]
With Exact generating more than $3 billion in annual revenue, Abbott projects its total diagnostics sales will exceed $12 billion once the deal is integrated. ^[51]

From a shareholder perspective, the key near‑term question is whether $105 is a ceiling (if the deal closes as‑is) or a reference point if competing bids, regulatory issues or shareholder pushback force renegotiation.

Fundamentals still matter: Exact Sciences’ Q3 2025 performance

Even though the stock now trades as a takeover target, Exact Sciences’ underlying fundamentals set the backdrop for both Abbott’s valuation and shareholder sentiment.

In its Q3 2025 earnings release on November 3, the company reported: ^[52]

Total revenue: $851 million, up 20% year‑on‑year.
Screening revenue (dominated by Cologuard): $666 million, up 22%.
Precision Oncology revenue (including Oncotype DX): $184 million, up 13%.
Gross margin: 69% (71% on an adjusted basis).
Net loss: $20 million or $0.10 per share, an improvement of $19 million from the prior year.
Adjusted EBITDA: $135 million, with a 16% margin, up 200 basis points.
Free cash flow: around $190 million, with operating cash flow of $220 million and cash plus marketable securities of about $1.0 billion at quarter‑end.

Management also raised full‑year 2025 revenue guidance to roughly $3.22–3.24 billion and increased its adjusted EBITDA outlook, reflecting strong growth in both screening and precision oncology. ^[53]

On the innovation front, Q3 saw the commercial launch of Cancerguard, Exact’s MCED blood test, supported by large validation studies (DETECT‑A and ASCEND 2) and a nationwide blood‑draw partnership with Quest Diagnostics, giving broad access through thousands of patient‑service locations. ^[54]

All of this helps explain why Abbott — and many investors — were willing to pay a rich multiple for the company’s growth platform.

How Wall Street now sees EXAS valuation and risk

With the takeover price now anchoring the stock, analyst commentary is converging around a few themes:

Consensus rating: broadly “Hold”

MarketBeat and GuruFocus data show that, despite a handful of lingering Buy ratings, the overall consensus has moved to Hold, reflecting: ^[55]

Many firms (Barclays, Wells Fargo, Guggenheim, Citi, Leerink, Jefferies, Benchmark, Craig‑Hallum and others) downgrading to neutral‑type ratings while aligning their price targets with the $105 deal price.
A consensus 12‑month price target in the low‑to‑mid $80s (around $81–93 depending on the data provider), implying double‑digit downside versus today’s ~$101 when the model is allowed to look beyond the deal. ^[56]

In simple terms: analysts like the business, but at today’s price they see limited upside if the Abbott deal is the end of the story and some downside if it fails.

Ownership and sentiment

According to MarketBeat, EXAS is heavily institutionally owned and actively followed: ^[57]

Roughly 89% of the float is held by institutional investors.
Short interest stands near 4.2% of float (about 3.7 days to cover), not extreme but meaningful.
News sentiment over the last week sits slightly below the average for the medical sector, reflecting the mixed tone of downgrades, legal actions and deal‑arbitrage commentary.

Insiders have been net sellers over the past three months, offloading roughly $695,000 in stock, which isn’t unusual after a big run‑up but is another data point for investors to weigh. ^[58]

What today’s setup means for Exact Sciences shareholders

With today’s flood of November 24 headlines, the story around EXAS stock can be boiled down to three main scenarios that investors are implicitly pricing:

Base case – deal closes as planned
- Most analysts — and Abbott itself — assume the transaction will clear antitrust and regulatory review and win shareholder approval by Q2 2026. ^[59]
- In that world, EXAS stock likely grinds toward $105, and the primary question becomes whether the ~4% spread and associated annualized return justify the perceived risk. ^[60]
Bullish twist – higher bid or competing suitor
- Law‑firm investigations and commentary about Abbott “paying up” highlight that some investors believe Exact Sciences could be worth more than $105, especially considering its growth, pipeline and leading positions in colorectal screening and MCED. ^[61]
- UBS, however, explicitly states that competing bids are unlikely, arguing Abbott’s primary‑care infrastructure makes it a uniquely synergistic buyer. ^[62]
Bear case – deal breaks
- Exact’s own proxy disclosures flag typical risks: regulatory or shareholder hurdles, potential termination fees, integration challenges and broader market volatility. ^[63]
- If the deal were terminated and the stock reverted to pre‑rumor levels, consensus targets in the $80s–90s suggest meaningful downside from today’s ~$101, even without a full re‑rating of the growth story. ^[64]

For now, the market’s message on November 24, 2025 is clear: Exact Sciences has largely become a bet on deal risk and timing, rather than a pure play on colon‑cancer screening volumes or Cancerguard adoption.

Bottom line

EXAS stock today is behaving like a classic takeover name — relatively stable, high volume, trading a few percent below the cash offer. ^[65]
New analyst research on November 24 (from UBS, Jefferies, Benchmark and Leerink) mostly converges on Hold ratings and $105 price targets, signaling that traditional upside‑driven stock calls have given way to event‑driven analysis. ^[66]
Legal and local responses — from shareholder‑rights firms and Wisconsin economic officials — underscore that the deal is significant both financially and regionally, even as closing remains months away. ^[67]

As always, this article is for informational purposes only and is not investment advice. Anyone considering trading EXAS around the Abbott deal should carefully evaluate their own risk tolerance, time horizon and the possibility that the transaction takes longer — or turns out differently — than the market currently expects.

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