Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. Acquires 38,807 Shares of Illumina, Inc. $ILMN

Key Points

• Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management boosted its Illumina stake by 2,440.7% in Q4, buying 38,807 additional shares and bringing its total holding to 40,397 shares worth about $5.3 million.
• Illumina beat earnings expectations in its latest quarterly report, posting $1.15 EPS versus the $1.05 consensus and revenue of $1.09 billion versus $1.07 billion expected.
• Despite solid results, analysts remain cautious: the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” with an average target price of $137.75, while insiders have also sold shares recently.

Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its holdings in Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN - Free Report) by 2,440.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 40,397 shares of the life sciences company's stock after purchasing an additional 38,807 shares during the quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co.'s holdings in Illumina were worth $5,298,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of ILMN. Capital World Investors raised its holdings in shares of Illumina by 20.0% in the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 19,976,850 shares of the life sciences company's stock valued at $1,897,178,000 after purchasing an additional 3,331,542 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in shares of Illumina by 2,792.2% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 944,500 shares of the life sciences company's stock valued at $124,145,000 after purchasing an additional 911,843 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA bought a new stake in shares of Illumina in the 4th quarter valued at about $73,532,000. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Illumina by 6.8% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,999,790 shares of the life sciences company's stock worth $569,800,000 after acquiring an additional 382,520 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Duquesne Family Office LLC bought a new position in shares of Illumina during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $28,682,000. Institutional investors own 89.42% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently commented on ILMN. Canaccord Genuity Group reduced their price objective on shares of Illumina from $150.00 to $140.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Illumina from $110.00 to $122.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Evercore reiterated an "outperform" rating on shares of Illumina in a research note on Friday, May 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Illumina from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on shares of Illumina from $195.00 to $170.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 9th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $137.75.

Illumina Stock Down 0.3%

NASDAQ:ILMN opened at $144.41 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $21.85 billion, a PE ratio of 26.26, a P/E/G ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 1.42. Illumina, Inc. has a twelve month low of $78.55 and a twelve month high of $155.53. The company has a current ratio of 1.75, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56. The company's 50 day moving average is $130.45 and its two-hundred day moving average is $130.91.

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The life sciences company reported $1.15 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.05 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $1.09 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.07 billion. Illumina had a net margin of 19.42% and a return on equity of 31.01%. Illumina's revenue was up 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.97 EPS. Illumina has set its FY 2026 guidance at 5.150-5.300 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Illumina, Inc. will post 5.2 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Illumina

In other news, Director Keith A. Meister sold 104,393 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $145.34, for a total value of $15,172,478.62. Following the sale, the director directly owned 3,500,048 shares of the company's stock, valued at $508,696,976.32. This represents a 2.90% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Christensen Jakob Wedel sold 700 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $139.04, for a total transaction of $97,328.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 15,056 shares in the company, valued at $2,093,386.24. This trade represents a 4.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 330,160 shares of company stock worth $48,028,308 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 2.90% of the company's stock.

Illumina Profile

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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