Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) Stock Lifted to Buy by Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note released on Sunday,Wall Street Zen reports.

A number of other research firms also recently issued reports on ILMN. Sanford C. Bernstein reissued a “market perform” rating and set a $215.00 price target on shares of Illumina in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on Illumina from $225.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 28th. UBS Group raised shares of Illumina from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $135.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 9th. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Illumina from $230.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 5th. Finally, Zacks Research cut shares of Illumina from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 1st. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $222.19.

Illumina Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:ILMN opened at $278.17 on Friday. Illumina has a 52-week low of $88.00 and a 52-week high of $309.35. The stock has a market cap of $42.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 51.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 1.41. The business’s 50 day moving average is $227.18 and its 200 day moving average is $181.30. The company has a quick ratio of 1.40, a current ratio of 1.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53.

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The life sciences company reported $1.31 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.23 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $1.16 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.13 billion. Illumina had a return on equity of 29.84% and a net margin of 18.36%. Illumina’s quarterly revenue was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.19 EPS. Illumina has set its FY 2026 guidance at 5.300-5.400 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Illumina will post 5.36 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Keith Meister sold 457,858 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $200.10, for a total value of $91,617,385.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 2,372,694 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $474,776,069.40. The trade was a 16.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders have sold a total of 2,061,850 shares of company stock valued at $436,479,102 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 2.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Illumina

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in Illumina during the second quarter valued at $3,374,423,000. WCM Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Illumina by 45.5% during the 1st quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 5,923,173 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $715,579,000 after acquiring an additional 1,851,848 shares in the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA purchased a new stake in shares of Illumina during the 2nd quarter worth about $617,981,000. Jupiter Topco LLC purchased a new position in shares of Illumina in the 2nd quarter valued at about $358,652,000. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of Illumina by 190.1% in the 2nd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,812,928 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $318,767,000 after purchasing an additional 1,188,004 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.42% of the company’s stock.

Illumina Company Profile

Illumina, Inc develops and manufactures technologies used to analyze genetic variation and biological function. Its products are primarily based on next-generation sequencing, a method that enables researchers and clinicians to read DNA and RNA for applications including genomic research, disease studies, drug development and clinical testing.

The company offers sequencing instruments, consumables such as reagent kits and flow cells, and related software and informatics solutions. Illumina also provides services and support designed to help customers prepare samples, run sequencing workflows, interpret genomic data and integrate results into research or clinical operations.

Founded in 1998 and headquartered in San Diego, California, Illumina serves customers worldwide, including academic and government research institutions, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, hospitals, clinical laboratories and other healthcare organizations.