Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) Receives “Overweight” Rating from Stephens

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN)‘s stock had its “overweight” rating reiterated by investment analysts at Stephens in a research report issued to clients and investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $156.00 price target on the life sciences company’s stock. Stephens’ price target would indicate a potential upside of 78.57% from the stock’s current price.

Several other analysts have also commented on ILMN. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on Illumina from $150.00 to $136.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. HSBC cut Illumina from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $100.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Friday, February 28th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on shares of Illumina from $250.00 to $247.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 7th. Guggenheim cut their price target on shares of Illumina from $170.00 to $150.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on shares of Illumina from $127.00 to $90.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Illumina currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $146.85.

Illumina Price Performance

Shares of ILMN stock traded up $1.39 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $87.36. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,187,089 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,616,984. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a current ratio of 1.77. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $117.43 and its two-hundred day moving average is $131.17. Illumina has a 1-year low of $80.18 and a 1-year high of $156.66. The company has a market cap of $13.84 billion, a P/E ratio of -11.37, a PEG ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.17.

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The life sciences company reported $0.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.92 by ($0.06). Illumina had a positive return on equity of 13.37% and a negative net margin of 27.95%. On average, research analysts predict that Illumina will post 4.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Illumina

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Capital World Investors raised its holdings in Illumina by 408.6% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 18,025,301 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $2,408,721,000 after purchasing an additional 14,481,232 shares during the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. grew its position in shares of Illumina by 54,220.9% during the 4th quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 1,912,639 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $255,586,000 after buying an additional 1,909,118 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Illumina during the fourth quarter worth approximately $228,714,000. Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Illumina by 32,837.5% in the fourth quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 1,348,131 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $180,152,000 after buying an additional 1,344,038 shares during the period. Finally, WCM Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Illumina by 26.6% in the fourth quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 4,129,855 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $551,625,000 after acquiring an additional 867,673 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.42% of the company’s stock.

Illumina Company Profile

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.