Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) Hits New 12-Month High – Here’s What Happened

Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) hit a new 52-week high during trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $199.65 and last traded at $197.1860, with a volume of 298140 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $194.82.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on ILMN shares. Sanford C. Bernstein started coverage on shares of Illumina in a research note on Friday, June 26th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $185.00 target price for the company. Royal Bank Of Canada began coverage on shares of Illumina in a report on Thursday, May 14th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $170.00 price objective for the company. TD Cowen reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Illumina in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Illumina from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $125.00 to $185.00 in a report on Wednesday, June 10th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their price objective on Illumina from $170.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and two have issued 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 $156.88.

Illumina Trading Up 2.3%

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 $30.17 billion, a PE ratio of 36.26, a P/E/G ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 1.47. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $174.28 and its 200-day simple moving average is $146.38.

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The life sciences company reported $1.15 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.05 by $0.10. Illumina had a net margin of 19.42% and a return on equity of 31.01%. The business had revenue of $1.09 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.07 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.97 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Illumina, Inc. will post 5.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Illumina

In other news, Director Keith A. Meister sold 235,000 shares of Illumina stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $163.63, for a total value of $38,453,050.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 2,830,452 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $463,146,860.76. The trade was a 7.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Scott M. Davies sold 615 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $180.00, for a total value of $110,700.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 20,953 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,771,540. The trade was a 2.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 1,003,769 shares of company stock valued at $155,710,908 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 2.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Illumina

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Impact Partnership Wealth LLC grew its position in shares of Illumina by 235.8% during the first quarter. Impact Partnership Wealth LLC now owns 11,080 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $1,366,000 after buying an additional 7,780 shares in the last quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new stake in Illumina during the 1st quarter worth about $5,460,000. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its holdings in Illumina by 8.0% in the 1st quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 86,318 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $10,640,000 after purchasing an additional 6,425 shares in the last quarter. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al boosted its stake in shares of Illumina by 27.4% during the 4th quarter. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al now owns 348,011 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $45,645,000 after purchasing an additional 74,900 shares during the last quarter. Finally, New York State Teachers Retirement System grew its holdings in shares of Illumina by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 149,638 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $19,627,000 after buying an additional 4,002 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.42% of the company’s stock.

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.