Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) Reaches New 52-Week Low on Analyst Downgrade

Shares of Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) reached a new 52-week low during trading on Wednesday after Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on the stock from $150.00 to $136.00. Morgan Stanley currently has an equal weight rating on the stock. Illumina traded as low as $99.35 and last traded at $100.45, with a volume of 123581 shares. The stock had previously closed at $100.68.

Several other research firms also recently weighed in on ILMN. UBS Group raised their price objective on Illumina from $133.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on Illumina from $124.00 to $139.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Citigroup downgraded Illumina from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $190.00 to $165.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Illumina from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $180.00 price target for the company in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Barclays downgraded Illumina from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $130.00 to $100.00 in a research note on Monday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $159.45.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ILMN. WCM Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Illumina by 26.6% during 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 buying an additional 867,673 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in shares of Illumina by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 3,402,057 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $454,617,000 after purchasing an additional 27,618 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Illumina by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,727,827 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $354,933,000 after purchasing an additional 48,018 shares during the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA boosted its holdings in shares of Illumina by 3.6% in the third quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 2,516,359 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $328,158,000 after buying an additional 87,599 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its position in Illumina by 40.5% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 2,168,057 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $282,735,000 after buying an additional 625,245 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 89.42% of the company’s stock.

Illumina Trading Up 2.9 %

The company has a quick ratio of 1.85, a current ratio of 2.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.43 billion, a PE ratio of -13.49 and a beta of 1.10. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $135.10 and its 200 day simple moving average is $135.34.

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The life sciences company reported $0.86 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.92 by ($0.06). Illumina had a positive return on equity of 12.59% and a negative net margin of 27.95%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Illumina, Inc. will post 4.42 earnings per share for the current year.

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.