Illumina, Inc. $ILMN Shares Purchased by Merit Financial Group LLC

Merit Financial Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) by 27.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 23,834 shares of the life sciences company’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,113 shares during the period. Merit Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Illumina were worth $3,126,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Capital World Investors lifted its stake in Illumina by 20.0% in the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 19,976,850 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $1,897,178,000 after buying an additional 3,331,542 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in Illumina by 6.8% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,999,790 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $569,800,000 after buying an additional 382,520 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Illumina by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 3,398,027 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $315,915,000 after buying an additional 102,147 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE increased its stake in Illumina by 1.9% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,930,843 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $184,222,000 after buying an additional 35,167 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ARK Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Illumina by 25.7% during the 3rd quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC now owns 1,467,879 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $139,405,000 after buying an additional 299,801 shares in the last quarter. 89.42% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Illumina Trading Down 1.2%

ILMN opened at $132.86 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 2.08 and a quick ratio of 1.72. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $124.12 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $125.18. Illumina, Inc. has a 1-year low of $69.83 and a 1-year high of $155.53. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 1.49.

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The life sciences company reported $1.35 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.26 by $0.09. Illumina had a net margin of 19.57% and a return on equity of 31.04%. The business had revenue of $1.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.10 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.95 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 5.0% on a year-over-year basis. Illumina has set its FY 2026 guidance at 5.050-5.200 EPS. Analysts expect that Illumina, Inc. will post 5.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Illumina news, SVP Patricia Leckman sold 2,370 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $116.18, for a total value of $275,346.60. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 16,321 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,896,173.78. This trade represents a 12.68% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.17% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have commented on ILMN. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Illumina in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Evercore set a $150.00 price objective on Illumina in a research note on Friday, February 6th. TD Cowen reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Illumina in a research note on Wednesday, January 7th. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $135.00 price objective on shares of Illumina in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Finally, Piper Sandler lowered their price target on shares of Illumina from $195.00 to $170.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 9th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Illumina currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $129.69.

About Illumina

Illumina, Inc (NASDAQ: ILMN) is a global life sciences company that develops, manufactures and markets integrated systems for the analysis of genetic variation and function. Headquartered in San Diego, California and founded in 1998, Illumina offers a range of sequencing and array-based technologies used by academic researchers, clinical laboratories, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, consumer genomics firms and agricultural researchers to enable discovery, translational research and clinical applications.

The company’s product portfolio includes next-generation sequencing (NGS) platforms and associated consumables, microarrays for genotyping and methylation analysis, library preparation kits and targeted assays.