Stephens Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) Stock

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) had its price target lifted by Stephens from $170.00 to $184.00 in a research note released on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the life sciences company’s stock.

Other research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Daiwa America upgraded shares of Illumina to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Leerink Partners boosted their price objective on shares of Illumina from $160.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Illumina from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Illumina from $252.00 to $254.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, HSBC upgraded shares of Illumina from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $180.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $164.00.

Illumina Price Performance

ILMN traded down $7.24 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $135.00. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,529,883 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,005,431. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $139.44 and its 200-day moving average price is $124.23. Illumina has a 12 month low of $92.69 and a 12 month high of $156.66. The stock has a market cap of $21.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -13.76 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a current ratio of 2.43, a quick ratio of 1.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94.

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The life sciences company reported $1.14 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.88 by $0.26. Illumina had a negative net margin of 36.10% and a positive return on equity of 7.29%. The company had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.08 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.33 earnings per share. Illumina’s quarterly revenue was down 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Illumina will post 4.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Illumina

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Illumina during the first quarter valued at about $4,527,000. US Bancorp DE lifted its position in shares of Illumina by 33.9% during the first quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 31,600 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $4,339,000 after buying an additional 8,001 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Illumina during the first quarter valued at about $610,000. Weybosset Research & Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Illumina by 92.0% during the third quarter. Weybosset Research & Management LLC now owns 18,052 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $2,354,000 after buying an additional 8,650 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sei Investments Co. lifted its position in shares of Illumina by 309.3% during the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 71,143 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $9,769,000 after buying an additional 53,761 shares during the last quarter. 89.42% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Illumina

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.