Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) Upgraded at UBS Group

Key Points

• UBS Group upgraded Illumina from “neutral” to “buy” and raised its price target from $135 to $260, implying roughly 23% upside from the prior close.
• Illumina reported quarterly EPS of $1.31, beating the $1.23 consensus estimate, while revenue rose 9.4% year over year to $1.16 billion. Analysts’ average rating remains “Hold,” with an average price target of $199.12.
• Insider selling remains notable: director Keith Meister sold 457,858 shares for approximately $91.6 million, and insiders sold more than 2 million shares worth about $436.6 million during the last quarter.

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN - Get Free Report) was upgraded by investment analysts at UBS Group from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating in a report issued on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a $260.00 price objective on the life sciences company's stock, up from their previous price objective of $135.00. UBS Group's price objective points to a potential upside of 23.19% from the company's previous close.

Several other research firms have also commented on ILMN. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Illumina from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Saturday, August 1st. Leerink Partners boosted their price objective on shares of Illumina from $175.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, July 17th. Piper Sandler reissued an "overweight" rating and set a $225.00 target price (up from $200.00) on shares of Illumina in a research report on Monday, August 3rd. Guggenheim raised their target price on shares of Illumina from $200.00 to $226.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Illumina from $95.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock a "sell" rating in a report on Monday, August 3rd. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $199.12.

Illumina Stock Down 3.3%

Shares of NASDAQ ILMN opened at $211.06 on Wednesday. Illumina has a 12-month low of $88.00 and a 12-month high of $231.81. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $199.86 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $160.68. The stock has a market capitalization of $31.87 billion, a PE ratio of 39.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.46. The company has a current ratio of 1.80, a quick ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53.

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The life sciences company reported $1.31 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.23 by $0.08. Illumina had a return on equity of 29.84% and a net margin of 18.36%.The firm had revenue of $1.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.13 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.19 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Illumina has set its FY 2026 guidance at 5.300-5.400 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Illumina will post 5.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Illumina

In other news, Director Keith Meister sold 457,858 shares of Illumina stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $200.10, for a total transaction of $91,617,385.80. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 2,372,694 shares in the company, valued at approximately $474,776,069.40. The trade was a 16.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 2,062,465 shares of company stock worth $436,589,802. Corporate insiders own 2.90% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Illumina

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC boosted its position in Illumina by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC now owns 2,218 shares of the life sciences company's stock valued at $291,000 after buying an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Illumina by 52.5% during the 2nd quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC now owns 244 shares of the life sciences company's stock valued at $43,000 after acquiring an additional 84 shares during the period. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. raised its holdings in Illumina by 3.1% in the 1st quarter. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. now owns 2,822 shares of the life sciences company's stock worth $348,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the period. Toronto Dominion Bank grew its stake in Illumina by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 33,605 shares of the life sciences company's stock valued at $4,407,000 after acquiring an additional 92 shares during the period. Finally, Panagora Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Illumina by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,536 shares of the life sciences company's stock valued at $333,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.42% of the company's stock.

About Illumina

Illumina, Inc NASDAQ: ILMN is a global life sciences company that develops, manufactures and markets integrated systems for the analysis of genetic variation and function. Headquartered in San Diego, California and founded in 1998, Illumina offers a range of sequencing and array-based technologies used by academic researchers, clinical laboratories, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, consumer genomics firms and agricultural researchers to enable discovery, translational research and clinical applications.

The company's product portfolio includes next-generation sequencing (NGS) platforms and associated consumables, microarrays for genotyping and methylation analysis, library preparation kits and targeted assays.

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