Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) Cut to Neutral at Citigroup

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) was downgraded by stock analysts at Citigroup from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report issued on Wednesday,Finviz reports. They presently have a $165.00 price objective on the life sciences company’s stock, down from their prior price objective of $190.00. Citigroup’s target price indicates a potential upside of 11.09% from the stock’s previous close.

Other analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Illumina from $124.00 to $139.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Illumina from $133.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Daiwa America upgraded shares of Illumina to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 16th. HSBC upgraded Illumina from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $180.00 target price for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on Illumina from $252.00 to $254.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $162.86.

Illumina Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ ILMN opened at $148.53 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $23.56 billion, a PE ratio of -14.91 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a quick ratio of 1.85, a current ratio of 2.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. Illumina has a twelve month low of $100.08 and a twelve month high of $156.66. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $143.46 and a 200 day simple moving average of $127.45.

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 4th. The life sciences company reported $1.14 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.88 by $0.26. Illumina had a positive return on equity of 7.29% and a negative net margin of 36.10%. The firm had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.08 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.33 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Illumina will post 4.11 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Illumina

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Primecap Management Co. CA grew its stake in Illumina by 462.5% in the 2nd quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 2,428,760 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $253,514,000 after buying an additional 1,997,010 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC grew its position in shares of Illumina by 305.0% in the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,485,599 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $155,067,000 after purchasing an additional 1,118,747 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP purchased a new position in shares of Illumina in the second quarter valued at $77,628,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its holdings in Illumina by 148.6% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,056,172 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $137,735,000 after purchasing an additional 631,294 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its holdings in Illumina by 40.5% during the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 2,168,057 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $282,735,000 after purchasing an additional 625,245 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.42% of the company’s stock.

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.