Investors Buy Large Volume of Illumina Call Options (NASDAQ:ILMN)

Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN - Get Free Report) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Thursday. Stock traders bought 10,974 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 212% compared to the average daily volume of 3,514 call options.

Illumina Stock Performance

Shares of Illumina stock traded up $0.63 on Friday, reaching $94.79. 3,837,289 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,148,341. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.01 billion, a PE ratio of -15.62, a PEG ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 1.32. Illumina has a 1-year low of $68.70 and a 1-year high of $156.66. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $82.69 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $99.32. The company has a current ratio of 1.86, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63.

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 for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.96 by $0.01. Illumina had a positive return on equity of 25.54% and a negative net margin of 22.25%. The company had revenue of $1.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.03 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.98 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Illumina will post 4.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Ankur Dhingra purchased 6,100 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 12th. The stock was bought at an average price of $81.21 per share, for a total transaction of $495,381.00. Following the acquisition, 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 purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 2.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Illumina

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Capital World Investors increased its holdings in Illumina by 408.6% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 18,025,301 shares of the life sciences company's stock valued at $2,408,721,000 after buying an additional 14,481,232 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Illumina by 3.5% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,371,662 shares of the life sciences company's stock worth $1,298,928,000 after acquiring an additional 558,243 shares during the period. WCM Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Illumina by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 4,179,011 shares of the life sciences company's stock valued at $334,321,000 after purchasing an additional 49,156 shares in the last quarter. Corvex Management LP raised its holdings 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 last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in Illumina by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 3,402,057 shares of the life sciences company's stock worth $454,617,000 after purchasing an additional 27,618 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.42% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently commented on ILMN shares. Canaccord Genuity Group increased their target price on Illumina from $87.00 to $99.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, June 11th. Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on Illumina from $190.00 to $185.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 15th. Hsbc Global Res lowered Illumina from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on Illumina from $120.00 to $85.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 9th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price target on shares of Illumina from $128.00 to $112.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. One investment analyst has 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.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $127.39.

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.