Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) Shares Purchased by Banco Santander S.A.

Key Points

• Banco Santander S.A. increased its stake in Illumina, Inc. by 54.5%, owning 31,924 shares valued at approximately $2.53 million as of the end of the most recent reporting period.
• Multiple institutional investors have modified their holdings in Illumina, with OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd growing its stake by 9.6% and Blueshift Asset Management LLC acquiring a new position valued at around $309,000.
• Wall Street analysts have recently downgraded Illumina's target prices, with some firms lowering their estimates significantly; current consensus rating stands at "Hold" with a target price of $127.21.

Banco Santander S.A. lifted its position in Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN - Free Report) by 54.5% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 31,924 shares of the life sciences company's stock after purchasing an additional 11,260 shares during the period. Banco Santander S.A.'s holdings in Illumina were worth $2,533,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership bought a new position in Illumina in the fourth quarter worth about $9,023,000. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Illumina by 84.2% during the 4th quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 6,374 shares of the life sciences company's stock valued at $852,000 after acquiring an additional 2,913 shares during the period. Huntington National Bank raised its holdings in shares of Illumina by 279.4% during the fourth quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 1,954 shares of the life sciences company's stock worth $261,000 after purchasing an additional 1,439 shares during the last quarter. Thoroughbred Financial Services LLC grew its holdings in Illumina by 65.3% during the fourth quarter. Thoroughbred Financial Services LLC now owns 2,662 shares of the life sciences company's stock worth $355,000 after acquiring an additional 1,052 shares during the period. Finally, Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Illumina during the 4th quarter worth about $6,065,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.42% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on ILMN. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Illumina from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research report on Friday, August 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered 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. Morgan Stanley set a $105.00 price target on shares of Illumina and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Monday. Piper Sandler cut their price target on shares of Illumina from $190.00 to $185.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. Finally, Stephens set a $110.00 price objective on shares of Illumina and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $127.74.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Ankur Dhingra bought 6,100 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 12th. The shares were 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 $2,022,616.26. This represents a 32.44% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.17% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Illumina Stock Performance

Shares of Illumina stock traded down $3.33 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $94.43. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,148,890 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,411,677. Illumina, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $68.70 and a fifty-two week high of $156.66. The company has a current ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 1.41 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. The firm has a market cap of $14.51 billion, a PE ratio of 11.95, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $94.47 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $92.05.

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The life sciences company reported $1.19 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.02 by $0.17. Illumina had a return on equity of 28.93% and a net margin of 29.36%. The company had revenue of $1.06 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.12 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.36 EPS. The company's revenue was down 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Illumina, Inc. will post 4.51 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.