Stock Traders Purchase High Volume of Illumina Put Options (NASDAQ:ILMN)

Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) saw some unusual options trading on Tuesday. Stock investors purchased 6,321 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of 50% compared to the typical daily volume of 4,204 put options.

Illumina Stock Performance

Shares of ILMN opened at $117.69 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $18.74 billion, a PE ratio of -16.03 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.66. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $134.81 and its 200 day moving average price is $128.22. Illumina has a 52 week low of $89.00 and a 52 week high of $232.23.

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The life sciences company reported $0.14 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.01 by $0.13. Illumina had a negative net margin of 25.78% and a positive return on equity of 2.20%. The business had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.09 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.14 EPS. Illumina’s revenue was up 3.6% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Illumina will post 0.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ILMN has been the subject of several recent research reports. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Illumina from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. StockNews.com upgraded Illumina from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. OTR Global restated a “mixed” rating on shares of Illumina in a report on Wednesday, March 20th. TD Cowen downgraded Illumina from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and set a $144.00 target price for the company. in a report on Thursday, January 4th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $253.00 price target on shares of Illumina in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $167.70.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Jacob Thaysen acquired 7,330 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was acquired at an average price of $135.29 per share, for a total transaction of $991,675.70. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer now directly owns 14,861 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,010,544.69. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 0.17% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Illumina in the third quarter worth approximately $29,558,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in Illumina by 210.5% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 48,194 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $6,711,000 after acquiring an additional 32,672 shares in the last quarter. Aquila Investment Management LLC grew its position in Illumina by 150.0% in the fourth quarter. Aquila Investment Management LLC now owns 25,000 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $3,481,000 after acquiring an additional 15,000 shares in the last quarter. Weil Company Inc. increased its stake in shares of Illumina by 59.2% during the 3rd quarter. Weil Company Inc. now owns 22,963 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $3,152,000 after purchasing an additional 8,539 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Illumina by 15.0% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 17,967,758 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $2,466,614,000 after purchasing an additional 2,336,935 shares in the last quarter. 89.42% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.