Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) Downgraded by Zacks Research to “Hold”

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) was downgraded by investment analysts at Zacks Research from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a note issued to investors on Tuesday, Zacks reports.

Several other research firms have also recently weighed in on ILMN. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Illumina in a research report on Monday. Leerink Partners raised their target price on shares of Illumina from $175.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 17th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Illumina from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price target on shares of Illumina from $170.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $225.00 price objective (up from $200.00) on shares of Illumina in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Illumina has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $188.40.

Illumina Trading Up 3.0%

Shares of NASDAQ:ILMN opened at $213.25 on Tuesday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $196.70 and its 200 day simple moving average is $157.87. Illumina has a 1 year low of $88.00 and a 1 year high of $231.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 1.80 and a quick ratio of 1.40. The company has a market capitalization of $32.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.79, a P/E/G ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 1.46.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Patricia Leckman sold 783 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.59, for a total value of $127,307.97. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 21,259 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,456,500.81. This represents a 3.55% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Keith A. Meister sold 457,858 shares of the firm’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 transaction of $91,617,385.80. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 2,372,694 shares in the company, valued at $474,776,069.40. This represents a 16.18% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 1,799,688 shares of company stock worth $379,517,231 in the last three months. 2.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Illumina

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ILMN. Elyxium Wealth LLC bought a new position in Illumina in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Fiduciary Financial Advisors acquired a new position in Illumina in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Keating Financial Advisory Services Inc. acquired a new position in Illumina in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Quarry LP bought a new position in shares of Illumina during the third quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, Nano Cap New Millennium Growth Fund L P bought a new stake in shares of Illumina in the fourth quarter worth $33,000. 89.42% of the stock is currently owned by 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.