Short Interest in Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) Grows By 9.2%

Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest in the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,880,000 shares, a growth of 9.2% from the August 31st total of 4,470,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 1,820,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.7 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Illumina

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of ILMN. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund lifted its holdings in shares of Illumina by 403.0% during the 2nd quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 14,626 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $1,527,000 after purchasing an additional 11,718 shares during the last quarter. Bluefin Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Illumina in the second quarter valued at about $313,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Illumina in the second quarter worth about $2,331,000. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky grew its stake in shares of Illumina by 248.3% during the second quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky now owns 45,132 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $4,710,000 after acquiring an additional 32,173 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its stake in Illumina by 25.8% in the 2nd quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 18,384 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $1,919,000 after purchasing an additional 3,767 shares in the last quarter. 89.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $242.00 price target on shares of Illumina in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on Illumina in a research report on Monday, June 3rd. They issued a “hold” rating and a $115.00 target price on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Illumina from $130.00 to $125.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Illumina in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. They set a “buy” rating for the company. Finally, Scotiabank decreased their price target on shares of Illumina from $176.00 to $164.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $152.05.

Illumina Stock Down 1.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ:ILMN traded down $1.61 on Tuesday, reaching $128.80. The company had a trading volume of 959,340 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,015,084. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.52 billion, a PE ratio of -15.44 and a beta of 1.15. Illumina has a 52-week low of $89.00 and a 52-week high of $148.19. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $126.61 and its 200-day simple moving average is $120.28.

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The life sciences company reported $0.36 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.12 by $0.24. Illumina had a negative net margin of 68.73% and a positive return on equity of 3.08%. The business had revenue of $1.11 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.09 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.32 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 5.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Illumina will post 3.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.