North Star Asset Management Inc. Increases Position in Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN)

North Star Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN - Free Report) by 6.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 85,604 shares of the life sciences company's stock after buying an additional 5,160 shares during the period. North Star Asset Management Inc. owned 0.05% of Illumina worth $11,439,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Illumina in the 4th quarter worth $32,000. Fourth Dimension Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Illumina in the 4th quarter worth $40,000. Assetmark Inc. raised its stake in shares of Illumina by 954.8% in the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 327 shares of the life sciences company's stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 296 shares during the last quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich purchased a new position in shares of Illumina in the fourth quarter worth about $45,000. Finally, Lee Danner & Bass Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Illumina in the fourth quarter worth about $48,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.42% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Ankur Dhingra purchased 6,100 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 12th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $81.21 per share, for a total transaction of $495,381.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 24,906 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,022,616.26. This trade represents a 32.44% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 2.60% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Guggenheim reduced their price target on shares of Illumina from $122.00 to $114.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 9th. Stephens reissued an "overweight" rating and set a $105.00 target price on shares of Illumina in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. TD Cowen cut shares of Illumina from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $177.00 to $140.00 in a report on Friday, February 7th. HSBC cut shares of Illumina from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $100.00 target price for the company. in a report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on Illumina from $127.00 to $90.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $128.15.

Illumina Price Performance

NASDAQ ILMN traded down $0.32 on Thursday, hitting $84.11. The company had a trading volume of 709,217 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,428,264. The company has a market capitalization of $13.32 billion, a PE ratio of -10.95, a PEG ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.35. The company's fifty day moving average price is $77.93 and its 200-day moving average price is $107.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 1.77 and a quick ratio of 1.42. Illumina, Inc. has a 12-month low of $68.70 and a 12-month high of $156.66.

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The life sciences company reported $0.97 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.96 by $0.01. Illumina had a negative net margin of 27.95% and a positive return on equity of 13.37%. The firm had revenue of $1.04 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.03 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.98 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Illumina, Inc. will post 4.51 earnings per share 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.