Stock Traders Buy High Volume of Call Options on Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN)

Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) saw some unusual options trading activity on Tuesday. Stock traders purchased 6,429 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 67% compared to the typical daily volume of 3,845 call options.

Illumina Price Performance

NASDAQ ILMN traded up $4.01 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $88.99. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 728,424 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,282,200. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.09 billion, a PE ratio of -11.62, a P/E/G ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 1.77 and a quick ratio of 1.42. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $77.96 and a 200 day moving average of $103.92. Illumina has a one year low of $68.70 and a one year high of $156.66.

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The life sciences company reported $0.97 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.96 by $0.01. Illumina had a negative net margin of 27.95% and a positive return on equity of 13.37%. The business had revenue of $1.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.03 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.98 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Illumina will post 4.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently issued reports on ILMN shares. Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on Illumina from $128.00 to $112.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Hsbc Global Res downgraded shares of Illumina from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Canaccord Genuity Group lowered their target price on shares of Illumina from $92.00 to $87.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Monday, May 12th. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on shares of Illumina from $127.00 to $90.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their target price on Illumina from $90.00 to $85.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $128.84.

Insider Activity at Illumina

In other news, CFO Ankur Dhingra bought 6,100 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 12th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $81.21 per share, with a total value of $495,381.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 24,906 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,022,616.26. This represents a 32.44% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 2.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Bank of Stockton grew its holdings in shares of Illumina by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. Bank of Stockton now owns 2,162 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $289,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. Stephens Inc. AR grew its stake in shares of Illumina by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 6,623 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $885,000 after buying an additional 90 shares during the last quarter. IFP Advisors Inc boosted its holdings in Illumina by 19.1% during the 4th quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 617 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $82,000 after acquiring an additional 99 shares during the period. Freedom Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Illumina by 3.7% during the 4th quarter. Freedom Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,856 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $382,000 after acquiring an additional 101 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in Illumina by 8.2% in the fourth quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,731 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $231,000 after purchasing an additional 131 shares during the last quarter. 89.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Illumina

Illumina, Inc offers sequencing- and array-based solutions for genetic and genomic analysis in the United States, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and internationally. It operates through Core Illumina and GRAIL segments. The company offers sequencing and array-based instruments and consumables, which include reagents, flow cells, and library preparation; whole-genome sequencing kits, which sequence entire genomes of various size and complexity; and targeted resequencing kits, which sequence exomes, specific genes, and RNA or other genomic regions of interest.