Norges Bank Invests $264.64 Million in Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN)

Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 1,900,571 shares of the life sciences company's stock, valued at approximately $264,636,000. Norges Bank owned 1.20% of Illumina as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of ILMN. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Illumina in the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Illumina by 344.6% during the third quarter. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC now owns 249 shares of the life sciences company's stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 193 shares in the last quarter. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Illumina in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Gradient Investments LLC lifted its stake in Illumina by 375.0% in the 4th quarter. Gradient Investments LLC now owns 285 shares of the life sciences company's stock valued at $40,000 after acquiring an additional 225 shares in the last quarter. Finally, North Star Investment Management Corp. boosted its position in Illumina by 183.0% during the 4th quarter. North Star Investment Management Corp. now owns 300 shares of the life sciences company's stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 194 shares during the last quarter. 89.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Illumina Stock Performance

Illumina stock traded down $0.22 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $107.39. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,654,587 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,718,030. Illumina, Inc. has a 12-month low of $89.00 and a 12-month high of $213.91. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $124.04 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $126.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a current ratio of 1.75. The company has a market capitalization of $17.11 billion, a P/E ratio of -13.20 and a beta of 1.20.

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The life sciences company reported $0.09 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.04 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.05 billion. Illumina had a positive return on equity of 2.31% and a negative net margin of 28.71%. Illumina's quarterly revenue was down 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.08 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Illumina, Inc. will post 0.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Jacob Thaysen acquired 7,330 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was acquired at an average price of $135.29 per share, for a total transaction of $991,675.70. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now owns 14,861 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,010,544.69. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.17% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ILMN has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $253.00 price objective on shares of Illumina in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Barclays lifted their target price on Illumina from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. OTR Global reissued a "mixed" rating on shares of Illumina in a research report on Wednesday, March 20th. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on Illumina from $125.00 to $128.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, Stephens restated an "overweight" rating and issued a $170.00 target price on shares of Illumina in a research report on Tuesday, May 7th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $164.65.

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.