Keith Meister Sells 457,858 Shares of Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) Stock

Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) Director Keith Meister sold 457,858 shares of Illumina stock in a transaction dated 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 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink.

Illumina Stock Performance

Shares of ILMN traded down $6.15 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $193.72. The stock had a trading volume of 4,268,800 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,934,392. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $179.92 and a 200 day moving average price of $148.41. Illumina, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $88.00 and a fifty-two week high of $207.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $29.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.14, a PEG ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 1.40 and a current ratio of 1.80.

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The life sciences company reported $1.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.23 by $0.08. Illumina had a net margin of 18.36% and a return on equity of 29.84%. The company had revenue of $1.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.13 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.19 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. Illumina has set its FY 2026 guidance at 5.300-5.400 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Illumina, Inc. will post 5.36 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Illumina

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new position in Illumina in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $293,846,000. Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Illumina in the second quarter valued at approximately $2,628,000. State of Wyoming acquired a new stake in shares of Illumina in the second quarter valued at approximately $262,000. S&CO Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Illumina in the second quarter valued at approximately $3,164,000. Finally, GSA Capital Partners LLP purchased a new position in Illumina during the second quarter worth approximately $261,000. 89.42% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on ILMN. Guggenheim upped their target price on Illumina from $200.00 to $226.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st. TD Cowen boosted their price target on shares of Illumina from $192.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. Daiwa Securities Group upgraded shares of 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. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded shares of Illumina to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Illumina from $155.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $188.40.

Illumina Company 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.