BNP Paribas Financial Markets Boosts Holdings in Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN)

BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its stake in shares of Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN - Free Report) by 100.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 590,287 shares of the life sciences company's stock after buying an additional 295,896 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets owned about 0.37% of Illumina worth $78,880,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Bleakley Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Illumina in the 4th quarter valued at about $751,000. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its stake in Illumina by 17.5% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 152,265 shares of the life sciences company's stock valued at $20,347,000 after acquiring an additional 22,718 shares during the period. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC acquired a new position in Illumina during the fourth quarter worth $1,464,000. Allworth Financial LP lifted its holdings in Illumina by 720.7% during the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 7,132 shares of the life sciences company's stock valued at $1,001,000 after purchasing an additional 6,263 shares in the last quarter. Finally, C2P Capital Advisory Group LLC d.b.a. Prosperity Capital Advisors acquired a new stake in shares of Illumina in the fourth quarter valued at about $448,000. 89.42% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on ILMN. Stephens reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and issued a $156.00 price target on shares of Illumina in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on shares of Illumina from $127.00 to $90.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Citigroup decreased their price target on shares of Illumina from $90.00 to $85.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Guggenheim decreased their target price on shares of Illumina from $170.00 to $150.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Illumina from $150.00 to $136.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $137.55.

Illumina Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ ILMN opened at $78.17 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 1.77 and a quick ratio of 1.42. The firm's 50-day moving average is $79.75 and its two-hundred day moving average is $114.99. Illumina, Inc. has a 12-month low of $68.70 and a 12-month high of $156.66. The company has a market capitalization of $12.37 billion, a PE ratio of -10.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.35.

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The life sciences company reported $0.86 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.92 by ($0.06). Illumina had a negative net margin of 27.95% and a positive return on equity of 13.37%. Equities analysts anticipate that Illumina, Inc. 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.

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