Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) Upgraded by Royal Bank Of Canada to “Moderate Buy” Rating

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) was upgraded by Royal Bank Of Canada to a “moderate buy” rating in a report issued on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on ILMN. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Illumina in a research report on Friday, May 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Illumina from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on shares of Illumina from $195.00 to $170.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 9th. Robert W. Baird set a $137.00 price objective on shares of Illumina in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Illumina from $135.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $137.75.

Illumina Price Performance

Shares of ILMN opened at $142.54 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $128.58 and a 200-day moving average price of $129.52. Illumina has a fifty-two week low of $78.55 and a fifty-two week high of $155.53. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.57 billion, a PE ratio of 25.92, a PEG ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 1.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a current ratio of 1.75.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Patricia Leckman sold 2,370 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $116.18, for a total transaction of $275,346.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 16,321 shares in the company, valued at $1,896,173.78. The trade was a 12.68% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Christensen Jakob Wedel sold 700 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $139.04, for a total transaction of $97,328.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 15,056 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,093,386.24. This trade represents a 4.44% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 332,530 shares of company stock worth $48,303,655 in the last 90 days. 2.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of ILMN. Empowered Funds LLC increased its stake in Illumina by 113.7% during the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 9,284 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $737,000 after purchasing an additional 4,940 shares in the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in Illumina during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $621,000. CW Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Illumina during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $275,000. Marshall Wace LLP increased its stake in Illumina by 49.0% during the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 59,645 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $5,691,000 after purchasing an additional 19,618 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cresset Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Illumina by 30.9% during the 2nd quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC now owns 7,404 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $706,000 after purchasing an additional 1,748 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.