Zacks Research Downgrades Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) to Hold

Key Points

• Zacks Research downgraded Illumina to “Hold” from “Strong Buy,” while the broader analyst consensus is also “Hold,” with a $188.40 average price target.
• Illumina reported quarterly earnings of $1.31 per share, exceeding estimates of $1.23, while revenue rose 9.4% year over year to $1.16 billion.
• Insiders sold approximately $379.5 million worth of shares over the past three months, although institutional investors hold a substantial 89.42% stake in the company.

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN - Get Free Report) was downgraded by Zacks Research from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday, Zacks reports.

ILMN has been the topic of a number of other reports. Sanford C. Bernstein restated a "market perform" rating and issued a $215.00 price target on shares of Illumina in a report on Friday, July 31st. Barclays boosted their target price on Illumina from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Leerink Partners upped their price target on Illumina from $175.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Illumina from $155.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Illumina from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Saturday, August 1st. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Illumina currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $188.40.

Illumina Price Performance

NASDAQ ILMN opened at $213.25 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 1.40 and a current ratio of 1.80. The stock has a market cap of $32.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.79, a PEG ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 1.46. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $196.70 and a 200 day simple moving average of $157.87. Illumina has a 52-week low of $88.00 and a 52-week high of $231.81.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Christensen Jakob Wedel sold 1,033 shares of Illumina stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $191.52, for a total value of $197,840.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 14,023 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,685,684.96. This trade represents a 6.86% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Scott M. Davies sold 615 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $200.00, for a total transaction of $123,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 20,338 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,067,600. This trade represents a 2.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 1,799,688 shares of company stock valued at $379,517,231. 2.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Illumina

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ILMN. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Illumina during the second quarter worth approximately $3,374,423,000. Plato Investment Management Ltd acquired a new stake in Illumina during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $948,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in Illumina in the 2nd quarter valued at $30,501,000. Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. acquired a new stake in shares of Illumina during the second quarter worth $129,792,000. Finally, Impact Partnership Wealth LLC boosted its position in shares of Illumina by 235.8% in the first quarter. Impact Partnership Wealth LLC now owns 11,080 shares of the life sciences company's stock valued at $1,366,000 after acquiring an additional 7,780 shares during the period. 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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