Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) Cut to Buy at Wall Street Zen

Key Points

• Wall Street Zen downgraded Illumina from “strong-buy” to “buy”, even as the stock has an overall Hold consensus from analysts with an average price target of $131.06.
• Illumina beat earnings and revenue expectations in its latest quarter, reporting $1.15 EPS on $1.09 billion in revenue, and it raised FY 2026 guidance to 5.150–5.300 EPS.
• The stock was up 2.3% to $141.88 in Friday trading, and recent insider filings showed two senior vice presidents sold shares under disclosed transactions.

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN - Get Free Report) was downgraded by stock analysts at Wall Street Zen from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note issued on Saturday.

ILMN has been the subject of a number of other reports. Evercore reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Illumina in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Citigroup upped their target price on Illumina from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a "sell" rating in a research report on Monday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Illumina from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Canaccord Genuity Group decreased their target price on Illumina from $150.00 to $140.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on Illumina from $110.00 to $122.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $131.06.

Illumina Trading Up 2.3%

NASDAQ:ILMN opened at $141.88 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $126.86 and a 200-day simple moving average of $127.86. The stock has a market cap of $21.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.80, a P/E/G ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 1.42. Illumina has a 1 year low of $75.24 and a 1 year high of $155.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a current ratio of 1.75.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Patricia Leckman sold 2,370 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $116.18, for a total transaction of $275,346.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 16,321 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,896,173.78. This represents a 12.68% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Christensen Jakob Wedel sold 700 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $139.04, for a total value of $97,328.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 15,056 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $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. Corporate insiders own 2.90% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Illumina

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Elyxium Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Illumina in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund purchased a new position in Illumina in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Creative Capital Management Investments LLC increased its stake in Illumina by 160.0% in the 4th quarter. Creative Capital Management Investments LLC now owns 195 shares of the life sciences company's stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares in the last quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. purchased a new position in Illumina in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Finally, Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Illumina in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,000. 89.42% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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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