Welch & Forbes LLC Sells 400 Shares of Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN)

Welch & Forbes LLC lowered its holdings in Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) by 17.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,956 shares of the life sciences company’s stock after selling 400 shares during the quarter. Welch & Forbes LLC’s holdings in Illumina were worth $272,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Illumina by 43.9% during the third quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 7,398 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $1,016,000 after purchasing an additional 2,258 shares in the last quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. boosted its holdings in shares of Illumina by 8.4% in the 3rd quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. now owns 5,275 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $724,000 after buying an additional 410 shares in the last quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance raised its stake in shares of Illumina by 8.6% during the 3rd quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance now owns 1,595 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $219,000 after acquiring an additional 126 shares in the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. boosted its stake in Illumina by 4.4% in the third quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 4,140 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $568,000 after acquiring an additional 176 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Verdence Capital Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Illumina by 9.3% in the third quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,945 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $404,000 after purchasing an additional 250 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.42% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Illumina news, CEO Jacob Thaysen bought 7,330 shares of Illumina stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $135.29 per share, with a total value of $991,675.70. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 14,861 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,010,544.69. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 0.17% of the company’s stock.

Illumina Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ ILMN traded down $3.63 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $109.19. 1,200,006 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,720,860. The company has a quick ratio of 1.36, a current ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $129.13 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $126.95. Illumina, Inc. has a twelve month low of $89.00 and a twelve month high of $213.91. The firm has a market cap of $17.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -13.84 and a beta of 1.20.

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The life sciences company reported $0.09 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.04 by $0.05. Illumina had a negative net margin of 28.71% and a positive return on equity of 2.31%. The company had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.05 billion. The firm’s revenue was down 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.08 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Illumina, Inc. will post 0.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ILMN has been the subject of several analyst reports. Scotiabank decreased their price objective on Illumina from $185.00 to $176.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday. Barclays increased their price target on Illumina from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. HSBC lowered Illumina from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. Stephens reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $170.00 price objective on shares of Illumina in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, OTR Global restated a “mixed” rating on shares of Illumina in a research note on Wednesday, March 20th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $164.65.

Illumina Profile

Illumina, Inc offers sequencing- and array-based solutions for genetic and genomic analysis in the United States, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and internationally. It operates through Core Illumina and GRAIL segments. The company offers sequencing and array-based instruments and consumables, which include reagents, flow cells, and library preparation; whole-genome sequencing kits, which sequence entire genomes of various size and complexity; and targeted resequencing kits, which sequence exomes, specific genes, and RNA or other genomic regions of interest.