Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) Shares Gap Up Following Analyst Upgrade

Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN)’s share price gapped up prior to trading on Wednesday after JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded the stock from a neutral rating to an overweight rating. The stock had previously closed at $160.03, but opened at $166.16. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now has a $185.00 price target on the stock, up from their previous price target of $125.00. Illumina shares last traded at $165.04, with a volume of 183,674 shares trading hands.

ILMN has been the subject of a number of other reports. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Illumina from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 9th. Weiss Ratings raised Illumina from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Daiwa Securities Group upgraded shares of Illumina from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $155.00 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 14th. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Illumina from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada started coverage on shares of Illumina in a research note on Thursday, May 14th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $170.00 price target for the company. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $142.13.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Patricia Leckman sold 783 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.59, for a total value of $127,307.97. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 21,259 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,456,500.81. This represents a 3.55% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CAO Scott D. Ericksen sold 500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.00, for a total value of $80,000.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 14,446 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,311,360. This represents a 3.35% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 1,003,154 shares of company stock valued at $155,600,208. Insiders own 2.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Illumina

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Elyxium Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of Illumina during the 4th quarter worth about $25,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund bought a new stake in shares of Illumina during the fourth quarter worth approximately $26,000. Creative Capital Management Investments LLC grew its position in shares of Illumina by 160.0% in the fourth quarter. Creative Capital Management Investments LLC now owns 195 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares during the last quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Illumina in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Finally, Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Illumina during the fourth quarter worth approximately $26,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.42% of the company’s stock.

Illumina Stock Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $25.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.20, a PEG ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 1.50. The company has a fifty day moving average of $139.27 and a two-hundred day moving average of $134.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a current ratio of 1.75.

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The life sciences company reported $1.15 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.05 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $1.09 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.07 billion. Illumina had a return on equity of 31.01% and a net margin of 19.42%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.97 EPS. Illumina has set its FY 2026 guidance at 5.150-5.300 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Illumina, Inc. will post 5.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.