Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) Director Keith Meister Sells 95,000 Shares

Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) Director Keith Meister sold 95,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $203.29, for a total value of $19,312,550.00. Following the sale, the director owned 1,994,425 shares in the company, valued at $405,446,658.25. This trade represents a 4.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

Illumina Stock Performance

NASDAQ:ILMN opened at $219.40 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $33.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.93, a P/E/G ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 1.45. Illumina, Inc. has a twelve month low of $88.00 and a twelve month high of $220.43. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $188.01 and its 200-day moving average price is $152.44. The company has a current ratio of 1.80, a quick ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53.

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The life sciences company reported $1.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.23 by $0.08. Illumina had a return on equity of 29.84% and a net margin of 18.36%.The company had revenue of $1.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.13 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.19 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. Illumina has set its FY 2026 guidance at 5.300-5.400 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Illumina, Inc. will post 5.36 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Elyxium Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Illumina in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $25,000. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Illumina during the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Illumina during the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Fiduciary Financial Advisors purchased a new position in Illumina in the second quarter valued at $26,000. Finally, Activest Wealth Management increased its holdings in Illumina by 671.9% in the fourth quarter. Activest Wealth Management now owns 247 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 215 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.42% of the company’s stock.

Trending Headlines about Illumina

Here are the key news stories impacting Illumina this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Illumina’s latest quarterly results exceeded expectations, with earnings of $1.31 per share versus the $1.23 consensus estimate and revenue of $1.16 billion versus expectations of $1.13 billion. Revenue increased 9.4% year over year, while fiscal 2026 EPS guidance remains $5.30-$5.40. Illumina stock information
• Positive Sentiment: Several institutional investors increased their positions, including Marshall Wace, Cresset Asset Management and Empowered Funds. Hedge funds and other institutions collectively own approximately 89.4% of ILMN shares, indicating strong professional-investor participation.
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst opinions remain mixed. Zacks Research upgraded the stock to “strong buy,” and Leerink Partners raised its target to $210, while Deutsche Bank downgraded the shares to “hold.” The overall consensus rating is “hold,” with an average target of $188.40—below recent trading levels. Analyst coverage of Illumina
• Negative Sentiment: Director Keith A. Meister sold 679,574 Illumina shares from August 19 through August 21 for approximately $145.6 million. The transactions reduced his ownership by roughly one-third, although he still holds about 1.41 million shares. The size and timing of the sales may raise concerns about insider conviction, even though the filings do not establish the reason for the transactions. SEC insider ownership filing
• Negative Sentiment: SVP Christensen Jakob Wedel also sold 1,033 shares under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The smaller, planned transaction is less concerning than Meister’s sales but adds to the recent pattern of insider selling. Illumina insider trading alert

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently commented on ILMN. Daiwa Securities Group raised Illumina from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $155.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 14th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Illumina from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 3rd. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their target price on shares of Illumina from $170.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Illumina in a research note on Monday, July 6th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised shares of Illumina from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $188.40.

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.