Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) Sets New 12-Month High – Time to Buy?

Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) shares hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $156.09 and last traded at $157.0050, with a volume of 250999 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $150.17.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Daiwa Securities Group upgraded Illumina from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $155.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 14th. Citigroup upped their price target on Illumina from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $135.00 price target on shares of Illumina in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Barclays upped their price target on Illumina from $110.00 to $122.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada assumed coverage on Illumina in a research note on Thursday, May 14th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $170.00 price target on the stock. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $137.75.

Illumina Stock Up 2.7%

The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $133.73 and a 200-day simple moving average of $132.02. The company has a market capitalization of $24.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.63, a P/E/G ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 1.42. The company has a quick ratio of 1.36, a current ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56.

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

Insider Activity

In other Illumina news, SVP Christensen Jakob Wedel sold 700 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 represents a 4.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Keith A. Meister sold 104,393 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $145.34, for a total value of $15,172,478.62. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 3,500,048 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $508,696,976.32. This represents a 2.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 330,160 shares of company stock valued at $48,028,308 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 2.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB grew its position in Illumina by 7.9% during the fourth quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 1,081 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $142,000 after buying an additional 79 shares during the period. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC grew its position in Illumina by 3.7% during the fourth quarter. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC now owns 2,218 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $291,000 after buying an additional 80 shares during the period. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. grew its position in shares of Illumina by 3.1% in the first quarter. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. now owns 2,822 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $348,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the period. Toronto Dominion Bank grew its position in shares of Illumina by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 33,605 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $4,407,000 after purchasing an additional 92 shares during the period. Finally, Assetmark Inc. grew its position in shares of Illumina by 10.2% in the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 1,039 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $99,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares during the period. 89.42% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.