Eukles Asset Management Reduces Stock Position in Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN)

Eukles Asset Management trimmed its position in Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) by 3.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,748 shares of the life sciences company’s stock after selling 194 shares during the period. Eukles Asset Management’s holdings in Illumina were worth $800,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Illumina by 15.0% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 17,967,758 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $2,466,614,000 after acquiring an additional 2,336,935 shares during the last quarter. Polen Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Illumina by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Polen Capital Management LLC now owns 5,126,614 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $703,782,000 after buying an additional 29,153 shares during the last quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P raised its position in shares of Illumina by 5.5% in the 3rd quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 4,007,957 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $550,212,000 after buying an additional 208,267 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in Illumina by 6.6% in the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 3,648,935 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $500,926,000 after acquiring an additional 225,074 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Illumina by 1.9% during the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,928,326 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $679,269,000 after acquiring an additional 54,951 shares during the period. 89.42% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other Illumina news, CEO Jacob Thaysen purchased 7,330 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $135.29 per share, with a total value of $991,675.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 14,861 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,010,544.69. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.17% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Illumina Price Performance

Shares of Illumina stock traded up $0.31 during trading on Friday, hitting $117.00. The stock had a trading volume of 730,731 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,749,803. The business has a fifty day moving average of $133.78 and a two-hundred day moving average of $128.07. Illumina, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $89.00 and a fifty-two week high of $229.58. The firm has a market cap of $18.63 billion, a P/E ratio of -16.03 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 1.66 and a quick ratio of 1.29.

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 8th. The life sciences company reported $0.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.01 by $0.13. Illumina had a negative net margin of 25.78% and a positive return on equity of 2.20%. The company had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.09 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.14 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Illumina, Inc. will post 0.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on ILMN shares. HSBC lowered Illumina from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $170.00 price objective on shares of Illumina in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $253.00 target price on shares of Illumina in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Barclays increased their price target on Illumina from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Illumina from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $167.70.

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.