Stephens Reaffirms Overweight Rating for Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN)

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN)‘s stock had its “overweight” rating reissued by research analysts at Stephens in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $156.00 price objective on the life sciences company’s stock. Stephens’ target price indicates a potential upside of 78.57% from the company’s previous close.

Other analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Hsbc Global Res cut shares of Illumina from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on Illumina from $150.00 to $136.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Guggenheim cut their price objective on Illumina from $170.00 to $150.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 7th. Canaccord Genuity Group lowered their target price on Illumina from $135.00 to $115.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada cut their price target on shares of Illumina from $250.00 to $247.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $146.85.

Illumina Trading Up 1.6 %

Shares of Illumina stock traded up $1.39 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $87.36. 1,187,089 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,616,984. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 1.77 and a quick ratio of 1.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.84 billion, a P/E ratio of -11.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.17. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $117.43 and its 200 day moving average price is $131.17. Illumina has a 1-year low of $80.18 and a 1-year high of $156.66.

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The life sciences company reported $0.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by ($0.06). Illumina had a negative net margin of 27.95% and a positive return on equity of 13.37%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Illumina will post 4.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Illumina

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Capital World Investors increased its position in shares of Illumina by 408.6% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 18,025,301 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $2,408,721,000 after purchasing an additional 14,481,232 shares during the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Illumina by 54,220.9% in the 4th quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 1,912,639 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $255,586,000 after buying an additional 1,909,118 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Illumina in the fourth quarter valued at $228,714,000. Bessemer Group Inc. increased its holdings in Illumina by 32,837.5% during the fourth quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 1,348,131 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $180,152,000 after buying an additional 1,344,038 shares during the last quarter. Finally, WCM Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Illumina by 26.6% in the 4th quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 4,129,855 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $551,625,000 after purchasing an additional 867,673 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 89.42% of the company’s stock.

Illumina Company 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.