Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) Cut to “Hold” at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report sent to investors on Saturday morning.

Several other equities analysts also recently commented on ILMN. Daiwa Securities Group upgraded shares of Illumina from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $155.00 price target on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 14th. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Illumina in a research note on Monday, July 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Illumina from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $125.00 to $185.00 in a report on Wednesday, June 10th. Weiss Ratings raised Illumina from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, TD Cowen reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Illumina in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $156.88.

Illumina Price Performance

Shares of Illumina stock opened at $184.68 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $167.28 and its 200-day simple moving average is $143.77. 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 has a 52 week low of $88.00 and a 52 week high of $196.66. The company has a market capitalization of $27.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.58, a PEG ratio of 3.49 and a beta of 1.47.

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The life sciences company reported $1.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.05 by $0.10. Illumina had a return on equity of 31.01% and a net margin of 19.42%.The firm had revenue of $1.09 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.07 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $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. As a group, analysts expect that Illumina will post 5.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Illumina news, Director Keith A. Meister sold 235,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $163.63, for a total transaction of $38,453,050.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 2,830,452 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $463,146,860.76. This trade represents a 7.67% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Patricia Leckman sold 783 shares of Illumina stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.59, for a total transaction of $127,307.97. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 21,259 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,456,500.81. The trade was a 3.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 1,003,769 shares of company stock worth $155,710,908 in the last quarter. 2.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Illumina

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in shares of Illumina by 2,792.2% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 944,500 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $124,145,000 after purchasing an additional 911,843 shares during the last quarter. Impact Partnership Wealth LLC increased its position in shares of Illumina by 235.8% during the 1st quarter. Impact Partnership Wealth LLC now owns 11,080 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $1,366,000 after purchasing an additional 7,780 shares during the last quarter. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd raised its holdings in Illumina by 547.3% in the 3rd quarter. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd now owns 80,155 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $7,612,000 after buying an additional 67,772 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its position in Illumina by 8.0% in the first quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 86,318 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $10,640,000 after buying an additional 6,425 shares during the last quarter. Finally, VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al lifted its position in Illumina by 27.4% in the fourth quarter. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al now owns 348,011 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $45,645,000 after buying an additional 74,900 shares during the last quarter. 89.42% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.