Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) Lowered to “Buy” Rating by Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen cut shares of Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research report sent to investors on Saturday morning.

ILMN has been the subject of a number of other reports. Robert W. Baird set a $137.00 target price on Illumina in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Weiss Ratings downgraded Illumina from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Guggenheim raised their price target on Illumina from $144.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 26th. Canaccord Genuity Group lowered their price target on Illumina from $150.00 to $140.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Citigroup raised their price target on Illumina from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $131.06.

Illumina Stock Up 2.3%

NASDAQ ILMN opened at $141.88 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a current ratio of 1.75. The company has a market capitalization of $21.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.80, a P/E/G ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 1.42. Illumina has a one year low of $75.24 and a one year high of $155.53. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $126.86 and a 200-day moving average price of $127.86.

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The life sciences company reported $1.15 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.05 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $1.09 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.07 billion. Illumina had a return on equity of 31.01% and a net margin of 19.42%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.97 EPS. Illumina has set its FY 2026 guidance at 5.150-5.300 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Illumina will post 5.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Christensen Jakob Wedel sold 700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $139.04, for a total value of $97,328.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 15,056 shares in the company, valued at $2,093,386.24. This trade represents a 4.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, SVP Patricia Leckman sold 2,370 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $116.18, for a total value of $275,346.60. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 16,321 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,896,173.78. This represents a 12.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 2.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Illumina

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its stake in Illumina by 23.5% in the first quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 20,986 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $2,587,000 after purchasing an additional 3,990 shares during the period. Oslo Pensjonsforsikring AS purchased a new stake in Illumina in the first quarter worth $104,000. Earned Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in Illumina by 3.2% in the first quarter. Earned Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 5,513 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $680,000 after purchasing an additional 173 shares during the period. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. increased its stake in Illumina by 3.1% in the first quarter. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. now owns 2,822 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $348,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the period. Finally, WCM Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Illumina by 45.5% in the first quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 5,923,173 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $715,579,000 after purchasing an additional 1,851,848 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.42% of the company’s stock.

About Illumina

Illumina, Inc (NASDAQ: ILMN) is a global life sciences company that develops, manufactures and markets integrated systems for the analysis of genetic variation and function. Headquartered in San Diego, California and founded in 1998, Illumina offers a range of sequencing and array-based technologies used by academic researchers, clinical laboratories, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, consumer genomics firms and agricultural researchers to enable discovery, translational research and clinical applications.

The company’s product portfolio includes next-generation sequencing (NGS) platforms and associated consumables, microarrays for genotyping and methylation analysis, library preparation kits and targeted assays.