Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) Shares Gap Down - Here's What Happened

Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN - Get Free Report) shares gapped down prior to trading on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $99.27, but opened at $96.25. Illumina shares last traded at $97.80, with a volume of 552,454 shares changing hands.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have commented on ILMN shares. Citigroup lowered Illumina from a "hold" rating to a "strong sell" rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $85.00 to $80.00 in a report on Wednesday. Scotiabank lowered Illumina from a "sector outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating and set a $125.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Friday. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price objective on Illumina from $87.00 to $99.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, June 11th. Barclays reaffirmed an "underweight" rating and issued a $85.00 price objective (up from $77.00) on shares of Illumina in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Finally, Stephens reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and issued a $105.00 price objective on shares of Illumina in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $125.11.

Illumina Trading Down 0.8%

The company has a current ratio of 1.86, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.71 billion, a P/E ratio of -16.35, a P/E/G ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 1.36. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $87.18 and a two-hundred day moving average of $96.48.

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The life sciences company reported $0.97 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.96 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $1.04 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.03 billion. Illumina had a positive return on equity of 25.54% and a negative net margin of 22.25%. The business's quarterly revenue was down 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.98 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Illumina, Inc. will post 4.51 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Ankur Dhingra bought 6,100 shares of the company's stock in a transaction 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 owned 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 legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 2.60% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Illumina

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Capital World Investors grew its stake in Illumina by 408.6% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 18,025,301 shares of the life sciences company's stock worth $2,408,721,000 after purchasing an additional 14,481,232 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Illumina by 3.5% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,371,662 shares of the life sciences company's stock worth $1,298,928,000 after purchasing an additional 558,243 shares during the period. WCM Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Illumina by 1.2% during the first quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 4,179,011 shares of the life sciences company's stock worth $334,321,000 after purchasing an additional 49,156 shares during the period. Corvex Management LP grew its stake in Illumina by 125.2% during the first quarter. Corvex Management LP now owns 3,829,608 shares of the life sciences company's stock worth $303,841,000 after purchasing an additional 2,129,449 shares during the period. Finally, Brown Advisory Inc. grew its stake in Illumina by 52.1% during the first quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 2,909,228 shares of the life sciences company's stock worth $230,818,000 after purchasing an additional 996,589 shares during the period. 89.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.