Illumina’s (ILMN) “Sell” Rating Reiterated at Citigroup

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN)‘s stock had its “sell” rating reissued by equities researchers at Citigroup in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $80.00 target price on the life sciences company’s stock, down from their previous target price of $85.00. Citigroup’s target price would indicate a potential downside of 19.41% from the company’s previous close.

Other research analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Guggenheim lowered their price objective on shares of Illumina from $122.00 to $114.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 9th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on Illumina from $136.00 to $100.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, May 12th. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on shares of Illumina from $190.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their price objective on Illumina from $128.00 to $112.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Barclays reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and set a $85.00 target price (up previously from $77.00) on shares of Illumina in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $127.16.

Illumina Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ ILMN opened at $99.27 on Wednesday. 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 has a 12 month low of $68.70 and a 12 month high of $156.66. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $85.88 and a 200-day moving average of $96.96. The company has a market capitalization of $15.71 billion, a P/E ratio of -16.35, a P/E/G ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 1.36.

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The life sciences company reported $0.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.96 by $0.01. The business 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 firm’s quarterly revenue was down 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.98 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Illumina will post 4.51 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Ankur Dhingra purchased 6,100 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 12th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $81.21 per share, for a total transaction 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 approximately $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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders own 0.17% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Illumina

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of ILMN. Fourth Dimension Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Illumina in the 4th quarter worth about $40,000. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich acquired a new stake in Illumina during the 4th quarter worth approximately $45,000. Assetmark Inc. increased its position in Illumina by 954.8% during the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 327 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 296 shares in the last quarter. Rise Advisors LLC grew its position in Illumina by 173.6% in the first quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 353 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 224 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lee Danner & Bass Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Illumina during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $48,000. 89.42% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.