Principal Financial Group Inc. Reduces Position in Illumina, Inc. $ILMN

Key Points

• Principal Financial Group reduced its Illumina stake by 3.8% in the fourth quarter, selling 12,877 shares and ending with 328,620 shares valued at about $43.1 million.
• Illumina reported better-than-expected quarterly results, posting EPS of $1.15 on revenue of $1.09 billion, both above analyst estimates, while revenue rose 4.8% year over year.
• The stock has seen mixed sentiment: several analysts adjusted price targets, but the overall consensus remains Hold with an average target price of $131.06, even as the shares recently traded higher at $141.88.

Principal Financial Group Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN - Free Report) by 3.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 328,620 shares of the life sciences company's stock after selling 12,877 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned about 0.22% of Illumina worth $43,102,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of ILMN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in Illumina by 17.5% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 832,690 shares of the life sciences company's stock valued at $79,081,000 after buying an additional 124,246 shares during the last quarter. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co acquired a new position in Illumina in the third quarter valued at about $2,319,000. Caprock Group LLC acquired a new position in Illumina in the third quarter valued at about $1,479,000. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its position in Illumina by 148.6% in the third quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 32,657 shares of the life sciences company's stock valued at $3,024,000 after buying an additional 19,519 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rakuten Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in Illumina in the third quarter valued at about $861,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.42% of the company's stock.

Illumina Stock Up 2.3%

Shares of NASDAQ:ILMN opened at $141.88 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 1.75 and a quick ratio of 1.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.47 billion, a PE ratio of 25.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 1.42. The firm's 50-day moving average is $126.86 and its two-hundred day moving average is $127.86. Illumina, Inc. has a 1 year low of $75.24 and a 1 year high of $155.53.

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

Insider Transactions at Illumina

In other Illumina news, SVP Patricia Leckman sold 2,370 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $116.18, for a total transaction of $275,346.60. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 16,321 shares in the company, valued at $1,896,173.78. This represents a 12.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Christensen Jakob Wedel sold 700 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $139.04, for a total transaction of $97,328.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president 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 disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 2.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have commented on the stock. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Illumina from $110.00 to $122.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Illumina from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a "sell" rating in a research report on Monday. Evercore reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of Illumina in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on shares of Illumina from $195.00 to $170.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 9th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on shares of Illumina from $135.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $131.06.

Illumina Company 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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