North Star Asset Management Inc. Takes $33.04 Million Position in Illumina, Inc. $ILMN

North Star Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 187,903 shares of the life sciences company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,039,000. Illumina accounts for about 1.3% of North Star Asset Management Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 21st largest position. North Star Asset Management Inc. owned 0.12% of Illumina as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Capital World Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Illumina by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 20,101,173 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $2,636,483,000 after purchasing an additional 124,323 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in Illumina in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $3,374,423,000. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Illumina by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,190,114 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $811,895,000 after buying an additional 190,324 shares during the period. WCM Investment Management LLC raised its position in 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 buying an additional 1,851,848 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in Illumina by 30.3% during the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 4,426,126 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $580,531,000 after buying an additional 1,028,099 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.42% of the company’s stock.

Illumina Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ ILMN opened at $227.69 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $34.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.48, a PEG ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 1.45. Illumina, Inc. has a 12 month low of $88.00 and a 12 month high of $231.81. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $192.98 and its 200-day simple moving average is $155.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 1.80 and a quick ratio of 1.40.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have commented on the stock. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their price objective on shares of Illumina from $190.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. Evercore reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Illumina in a research note on Monday, July 6th. Zacks Research raised shares of Illumina from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 3rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded shares of Illumina to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $215.00 price target on shares of Illumina in a research report on Friday, July 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Illumina presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $188.40.

Insider Transactions at Illumina

In other news, Director Keith A. Meister sold 457,858 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $200.10, for a total transaction of $91,617,385.80. Following the sale, the director directly owned 2,372,694 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $474,776,069.40. This represents a 16.18% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Christensen Jakob Wedel sold 1,033 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $191.52, for a total value of $197,840.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 14,023 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,685,684.96. The trade was a 6.86% 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. In the last quarter, insiders sold 2,034,688 shares of company stock valued at $417,970,281. 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.