Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) Short Interest Update

Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) saw a large increase in short interest in the month of January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 6,510,000 shares, an increase of 9.0% from the January 15th total of 5,970,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 2,240,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.9 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on ILMN. UBS Group raised their target price on Illumina from $133.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Canaccord Genuity Group decreased their target price on Illumina from $145.00 to $135.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 7th. Guggenheim decreased their target price on Illumina from $170.00 to $150.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 7th. Stephens raised their target price on Illumina from $170.00 to $184.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their price target on Illumina from $124.00 to $139.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $159.45.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Keel Point LLC purchased a new position in Illumina in the fourth quarter worth about $204,000. Ion Asset Management Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Illumina by 10.9% during the fourth quarter. Ion Asset Management Ltd. now owns 800,500 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $106,971,000 after buying an additional 79,001 shares during the period. Perbak Capital Partners LLP purchased a new position in shares of Illumina during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,201,000. Lido Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Illumina by 18.1% during the fourth quarter. Lido Advisors LLC now owns 3,392 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $453,000 after buying an additional 521 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in shares of Illumina by 26.9% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,652,935 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $220,882,000 after buying an additional 349,878 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.42% of the company’s stock.

Illumina Price Performance

Shares of Illumina stock traded down $1.54 during trading on Friday, reaching $100.24. 3,135,782 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,850,528. The company has a market capitalization of $15.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -13.05 and a beta of 1.10. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $132.74 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $134.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 2.43 and a quick ratio of 1.85. Illumina has a 52-week low of $99.35 and a 52-week high of $156.66.

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The life sciences company reported $0.86 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.92 by ($0.06). Illumina had a positive return on equity of 12.59% and a negative net margin of 27.95%. Sell-side analysts expect that Illumina will post 4.42 EPS for the current year.

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.