Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) Shares Gap Up on Insider Buying Activity

Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) shares gapped up prior to trading on Thursday after an insider bought additional shares in the company. The stock had previously closed at $78.21, but opened at $80.02. Illumina shares last traded at $79.75, with a volume of 324,076 shares changing hands.

Specifically, CFO Ankur Dhingra acquired 6,100 shares of Illumina stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 12th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $81.21 per share, for a total transaction of $495,381.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief financial officer now owns 24,906 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,022,616.26. This represents a 32.44% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. HSBC cut shares of Illumina from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $100.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Hsbc Global Res cut shares of Illumina from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Illumina from $120.00 to $85.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 9th. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Illumina from $100.00 to $77.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. Finally, Stephens reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $156.00 target price on shares of Illumina in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Illumina has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $130.70.

Illumina Trading Up 3.4%

The company has a market cap of $13.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -10.89, a PEG ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a current ratio of 1.77. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $78.48 and its 200-day moving average price is $111.37.

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 8th. The life sciences company reported $0.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.96 by $0.01. Illumina had a negative net margin of 27.95% and a positive return on equity of 13.37%. The company had revenue of $1.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.03 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.98 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Illumina, Inc. will post 4.51 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Illumina

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. 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 in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Illumina by 3.5% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,371,662 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $1,298,928,000 after purchasing an additional 558,243 shares in the last quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Illumina by 1.2% during the 1st quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 4,179,011 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $334,321,000 after purchasing an additional 49,156 shares in the last quarter. Corvex Management LP increased its position in shares of Illumina by 125.2% during the 1st quarter. Corvex Management LP now owns 3,829,608 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $303,841,000 after purchasing an additional 2,129,449 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position 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 worth $454,617,000 after purchasing an additional 27,618 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.