WCM Investment Management LLC Acquires 1,851,848 Shares of Illumina, Inc. $ILMN

WCM Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) by 45.5% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,923,173 shares of the life sciences company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,851,848 shares during the quarter. Illumina comprises approximately 1.6% of WCM Investment Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 24th largest holding. WCM Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Illumina were worth $715,579,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of ILMN. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in Illumina by 97.0% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,747,986 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $360,426,000 after buying an additional 1,352,731 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Illumina by 30.3% in the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 4,426,126 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $580,531,000 after purchasing an additional 1,028,099 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in shares of Illumina by 66.0% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 2,529,045 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $331,710,000 after acquiring an additional 1,005,474 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its holdings in Illumina by 2,792.2% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 944,500 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $124,145,000 after buying an additional 911,843 shares during the period. Finally, Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. bought a new position in Illumina in the first quarter worth about $106,462,000. 89.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Illumina Stock Performance

Shares of ILMN stock opened at $186.65 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $166.44 and a two-hundred day moving average of $143.40. The stock has a market capitalization of $28.24 billion, a PE ratio of 33.94, a P/E/G ratio of 3.49 and a beta of 1.47. 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, Inc. has a 52 week low of $88.00 and a 52 week high of $196.66.

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The life sciences company reported $1.15 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.07 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.97 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly 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. On average, research analysts predict that Illumina, Inc. will post 5.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of Illumina from $170.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. Leerink Partners lifted their target price on shares of Illumina from $175.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Illumina from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $125.00 to $185.00 in a research report on Wednesday, June 10th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Illumina from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday. Finally, TD Cowen reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Illumina in a report on Wednesday. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $156.88.

Insider Activity at Illumina

In related news, Director Keith A. Meister sold 235,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $163.63, for a total transaction of $38,453,050.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 2,830,452 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $463,146,860.76. This trade represents a 7.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a 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 on Wednesday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $139.04, for a total transaction of $97,328.00. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 1,003,769 shares of company stock worth $155,710,908 in the last three months. Company insiders own 2.90% of the company’s stock.

Illumina Profile

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.