Moors & Cabot Inc. Raises Stock Position in Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN)

Moors & Cabot Inc. lifted its stake in Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) by 2.5% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 5,855 shares of the life sciences company’s stock after acquiring an additional 145 shares during the quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc.’s holdings in Illumina were worth $465,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership acquired a new position in Illumina in the fourth quarter valued at $9,023,000. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Illumina by 84.2% during the 4th 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 period. Thoroughbred Financial Services LLC boosted its position in Illumina by 65.3% during the fourth quarter. Thoroughbred Financial Services LLC now owns 2,662 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $355,000 after purchasing an additional 1,052 shares in the last quarter. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in Illumina in the fourth quarter valued at $6,065,000. Finally, Aviva PLC increased its position in shares of Illumina by 68.0% in the fourth quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 95,560 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $12,770,000 after buying an additional 38,678 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.42% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Illumina

In related news, CFO Ankur Dhingra bought 6,100 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 12th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $81.21 per share, for a total transaction of $495,381.00. Following the acquisition, the chief financial officer owned 24,906 shares in the company, valued at $2,022,616.26. This represents a 32.44% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 0.17% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Illumina Price Performance

ILMN opened at $98.44 on Tuesday. Illumina, Inc. has a 52-week low of $68.70 and a 52-week high of $156.66. The company has a 50 day moving average of $94.16 and a two-hundred day moving average of $92.01. The company has a market cap of $15.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.46, a P/E/G ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a quick ratio of 1.41, a current ratio of 1.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66.

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The life sciences company reported $1.19 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.02 by $0.17. Illumina had a net margin of 29.36% and a return on equity of 28.93%. The business had revenue of $1.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.12 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.36 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Illumina, Inc. will post 4.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Citigroup downgraded shares of Illumina from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $85.00 to $80.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Barclays lifted their price objective on Illumina from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Illumina from $120.00 to $85.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 9th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on Illumina from $116.00 to $128.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Illumina from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Illumina presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $127.47.

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.