Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) Shares Gap Down - Should You Sell?

Key Points

• Illumina shares gapped down significantly, opening at $92.61 after closing at $102.71, bringing the last traded price to $95.29.
• Analysts have mixed ratings on Illumina, with target price adjustments ranging from $87.00 to $190.00 and an average consensus target price of $126.16.
• Recent insider trading saw CFO Ankur Dhingra purchase 6,100 shares at an average cost of $81.21, increasing his ownership in the company by over 32%.

Shares of Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN - Get Free Report) gapped down before the market opened on Friday . The stock had previously closed at $102.71, but opened at $92.61. Illumina shares last traded at $95.29, with a volume of 779,620 shares traded.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have commented on ILMN. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their price objective on shares of Illumina from $99.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of Illumina from $116.00 to $128.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Illumina from $84.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Citigroup cut shares of Illumina from a "hold" rating to a "strong sell" rating and reduced their target price for the company from $85.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of Illumina from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $127.47.

Illumina Stock Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 1.41, a current ratio of 1.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. The stock has a market cap of $15.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.46, a P/E/G ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $93.80 and a 200 day simple moving average of $92.28.

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 31st. The life sciences company reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.02 by $0.17. Illumina had a return on equity of 28.93% and a net margin of 29.36%. The company had revenue of $1.06 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.12 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.36 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was down 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Illumina, Inc. will post 4.51 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Ankur Dhingra acquired 6,100 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 12th. The stock was bought at an average price of $81.21 per share, with a total value of $495,381.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief financial officer directly owned 24,906 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,022,616.26. This represents a 32.44% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.17% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Illumina

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ILMN. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership bought a new stake in Illumina in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $9,023,000. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Illumina by 84.2% in the fourth quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 6,374 shares of the life sciences company's stock valued at $852,000 after acquiring an additional 2,913 shares during the last quarter. Huntington National Bank boosted its holdings in Illumina by 279.4% in the fourth quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 1,954 shares of the life sciences company's stock valued at $261,000 after acquiring an additional 1,439 shares during the last quarter. Thoroughbred Financial Services LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Illumina by 65.3% during the 4th quarter. Thoroughbred Financial Services LLC now owns 2,662 shares of the life sciences company's stock worth $355,000 after buying an additional 1,052 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Illumina during the 4th quarter worth approximately $6,065,000. 89.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Illumina

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.