Rafferty Asset Management LLC Sells 89,504 Shares of Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN)

Rafferty Asset Management LLC lowered its position in shares of Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN - Free Report) by 96.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 3,623 shares of the life sciences company's stock after selling 89,504 shares during the period. Rafferty Asset Management LLC's holdings in Illumina were worth $484,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Bleakley Financial Group LLC bought a new position in Illumina in the 4th quarter worth approximately $751,000. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its stake in shares of Illumina by 17.5% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 152,265 shares of the life sciences company's stock worth $20,347,000 after purchasing an additional 22,718 shares in the last quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC bought a new position in shares of Illumina in the fourth quarter worth $1,464,000. Allworth Financial LP raised its stake in shares of 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 Illumina in the fourth quarter worth about $448,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.42% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently weighed in on ILMN. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Illumina from $100.00 to $77.00 and set an "underweight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. Canaccord Genuity Group reduced their price target on shares of Illumina from $92.00 to $87.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, May 12th. TD Cowen downgraded shares of Illumina from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and cut their target price for the company from $177.00 to $140.00 in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Illumina from $136.00 to $100.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, May 12th. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price target on Illumina from $90.00 to $85.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $128.15.

Illumina Stock Performance

ILMN stock traded up $0.04 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $82.53. 336,818 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,318,455. Illumina, Inc. has a twelve month low of $68.70 and a twelve month high of $156.66. The company has a current ratio of 1.77, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63. The company has a market capitalization of $13.06 billion, a P/E ratio of -10.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.35. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $78.00 and a 200-day simple moving average of $107.72.

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 8th. The life sciences company reported $0.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates 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 company had revenue of $1.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.03 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.98 EPS. The business's revenue was down 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Illumina, Inc. will post 4.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Ankur Dhingra purchased 6,100 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 12th. The shares were 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 directly owns 24,906 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,022,616.26. The trade was a 32.44% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 2.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Illumina Company Profile

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.