Traders Buy High Volume of Illumina Call Options (NASDAQ:ILMN)

Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) saw some unusual options trading activity on Tuesday. Investors purchased 6,429 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 67% compared to the typical volume of 3,845 call options.

Insider Activity at Illumina

In related news, CFO Ankur Dhingra acquired 6,100 shares of Illumina stock in a transaction on Monday, May 12th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $81.21 per share, with a total value of $495,381.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief financial officer now directly owns 24,906 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,022,616.26. The trade was a 32.44% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 2.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Illumina

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Rise Advisors LLC boosted its position in Illumina by 173.6% in the first quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 353 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 224 shares during the last quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. grew its stake in shares of Illumina by 290.3% in the 1st quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 363 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 270 shares in the last quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Illumina in the fourth quarter worth $32,000. Center for Financial Planning Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Illumina during the first quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Finally, Fourth Dimension Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Illumina in the fourth quarter worth about $40,000. 89.42% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ILMN has been the topic of several recent research reports. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on Illumina from $128.00 to $112.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Illumina from $100.00 to $77.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 10th. Canaccord Genuity Group cut their price objective on Illumina from $92.00 to $87.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, May 12th. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Illumina from $90.00 to $85.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Finally, Guggenheim decreased their price objective on shares of Illumina from $122.00 to $114.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Illumina currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $128.84.

Illumina Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:ILMN opened at $87.98 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -11.46, a PEG ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.32. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $78.19 and its 200-day moving average is $103.81. Illumina has a twelve month low of $68.70 and a twelve month high of $156.66. The company has a quick ratio of 1.42, a current ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63.

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. The business had revenue of $1.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.03 billion. Illumina had a positive return on equity of 13.37% and a negative net margin of 27.95%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.98 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Illumina will post 4.51 EPS for the current fiscal 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.