Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) Stock Rating Upgraded by Sanford C. Bernstein

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) was upgraded by analysts at Sanford C. Bernstein to a “hold” rating in a note issued to investors on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

ILMN has been the subject of a number of other reports. Citigroup increased their price target on Illumina from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Illumina from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the company from $125.00 to $185.00 in a research report on Wednesday, June 10th. Barclays lifted their price target on Illumina from $122.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Canaccord Genuity Group reduced their price target on Illumina from $150.00 to $140.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Illumina from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Illumina currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $146.00.

Illumina Stock Down 0.6%

ILMN stock opened at $176.55 on Thursday. Illumina has a 52-week low of $88.00 and a 52-week high of $182.84. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $149.62 and its 200-day simple moving average is $137.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 1.75 and a quick ratio of 1.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.10, a P/E/G ratio of 3.32 and a beta of 1.50.

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The life sciences company reported $1.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 the consensus estimate of $1.07 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.97 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. Illumina has set its FY 2026 guidance at 5.150-5.300 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Illumina will post 5.21 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Illumina

In other Illumina news, Director Keith A. Meister sold 235,000 shares of the company’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 sale, the director directly owned 2,830,452 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $463,146,860.76. This represents a 7.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Scott D. Ericksen sold 500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.00, for a total transaction of $80,000.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 14,446 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,311,360. The trade was a 3.35% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 1,003,769 shares of company stock valued at $155,710,908. 2.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Illumina

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Capital World Investors boosted its stake in shares of Illumina by 0.6% in 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 buying an additional 124,323 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Illumina by 3.2% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,190,114 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $811,895,000 after purchasing an additional 190,324 shares in the last quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC increased its holdings 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 valued at $715,579,000 after purchasing an additional 1,851,848 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Illumina by 30.3% in the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 4,426,126 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $580,531,000 after buying an additional 1,028,099 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Illumina by 4.8% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,869,047 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $375,260,000 after buying an additional 130,139 shares in 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.