Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) Shares Gap Down After Analyst Downgrade

Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN)’s share price gapped down prior to trading on Tuesday after Barclays lowered their price target on the stock from $145.00 to $130.00. The stock had previously closed at $131.10, but opened at $125.17. Barclays currently has an equal weight rating on the stock. Illumina shares last traded at $125.01, with a volume of 816,967 shares trading hands.

A number of other research firms also recently weighed in on ILMN. Citigroup downgraded Illumina from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $190.00 to $165.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Leerink Partners lifted their price target on Illumina from $160.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Piper Sandler decreased their price target on Illumina from $195.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 11th. 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. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on Illumina from $252.00 to $254.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $164.84.

Institutional Trading of Illumina

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in ILMN. Zacks Investment Management acquired a new position in Illumina in the third quarter valued at $2,924,000. Freemont Management S.A. acquired a new position in Illumina in the third quarter valued at $1,565,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in Illumina by 5.8% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 42,748 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $5,712,000 after purchasing an additional 2,338 shares during the last quarter. CCLA Investment Management increased its stake in Illumina by 20.5% in the fourth quarter. CCLA Investment Management now owns 535,050 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $71,493,000 after purchasing an additional 91,122 shares during the last quarter. Finally, China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its stake in Illumina by 65.5% in the third quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 32,806 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $4,278,000 after purchasing an additional 12,986 shares during the last quarter. 89.42% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Illumina Price Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $19.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -12.52 and a beta of 1.10. 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 company has a 50 day simple moving average of $138.82 and a 200 day simple moving average of $135.32.

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The life sciences company reported $1.14 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.88 by $0.26. The company had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.08 billion. Illumina had a positive return on equity of 7.29% and a negative net margin of 36.10%. The firm’s revenue was down 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.33 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Illumina, Inc. will post 4.13 EPS 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.