Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) Rating Lowered to “Sector Perform” at Scotiabank

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) was downgraded by equities research analysts at Scotiabank from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday, Marketbeat reports. They currently have a $125.00 price target on the life sciences company’s stock. Scotiabank’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 25.94% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other research firms also recently issued reports on ILMN. Stephens reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $105.00 price target on shares of Illumina in a research note on Tuesday, May 20th. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their target price on Illumina from $87.00 to $99.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 11th. Citigroup cut Illumina from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating and cut their target price for the company from $85.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Wednesday. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their price target on Illumina from $128.00 to $112.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on Illumina from $120.00 to $85.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 9th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $125.11.

Illumina Price Performance

Shares of ILMN stock opened at $99.25 on Friday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $87.18 and a 200 day simple moving average of $96.21. The company has a market cap of $15.71 billion, a P/E ratio of -16.35, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.36. The company has a quick ratio of 1.48, a current ratio of 1.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63. Illumina has a twelve month low of $68.70 and a twelve month high of $156.66.

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 8th. The life sciences company reported $0.97 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.96 by $0.01. Illumina had a positive return on equity of 25.54% and a negative net margin of 22.25%. The business had revenue of $1.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.03 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.98 EPS. Illumina’s quarterly revenue was down 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Illumina will post 4.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Illumina news, CFO Ankur Dhingra acquired 6,100 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 12th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $81.21 per share, for a total transaction of $495,381.00. Following the acquisition, the chief financial officer owned 24,906 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,022,616.26. This trade represents a 32.44% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 2.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of ILMN. Capital World Investors raised its stake 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 buying an additional 14,481,232 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Illumina by 3.5% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,371,662 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $1,298,928,000 after acquiring an additional 558,243 shares during the period. WCM Investment Management LLC raised its position in Illumina by 1.2% during the first quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 4,179,011 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $334,321,000 after acquiring an additional 49,156 shares during the period. Corvex Management LP lifted its holdings in Illumina by 125.2% during the first quarter. Corvex Management LP now owns 3,829,608 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $303,841,000 after purchasing an additional 2,129,449 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brown Advisory Inc. grew its position in shares of Illumina by 52.1% in the first quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 2,909,228 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $230,818,000 after purchasing an additional 996,589 shares during the period. 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.