Principal Financial Group Inc. Cuts Position in Illumina, Inc. $ILMN

Principal Financial Group Inc. trimmed its position in shares of Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) by 3.8% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 328,620 shares of the life sciences company’s stock after selling 12,877 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Illumina were worth $43,102,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Pinnacle Wealth Management Advisory Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Illumina during the fourth quarter worth approximately $341,000. Truist Financial Corp increased its stake in shares of Illumina by 6.6% during the fourth quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 53,688 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $7,042,000 after buying an additional 3,305 shares during the period. Benjamin Edwards Inc. increased its stake in shares of Illumina by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 6,286 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $824,000 after buying an additional 153 shares during the period. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS increased its stake in shares of Illumina by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS now owns 10,262 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $1,346,000 after buying an additional 221 shares during the period. Finally, Robertson Stephens Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Illumina in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $934,000. 89.42% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ILMN has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of Illumina from $135.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Illumina from $110.00 to $122.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Illumina from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Guggenheim increased their price target on shares of Illumina from $144.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 26th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Illumina from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. 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 data from MarketBeat.com, Illumina has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $131.06.

Insider Activity at Illumina

In other news, SVP Patricia Leckman sold 2,370 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $116.18, for a total value of $275,346.60. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 16,321 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,896,173.78. This represents a 12.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Christensen Jakob Wedel sold 700 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $139.04, for a total value of $97,328.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 15,056 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,093,386.24. The trade was a 4.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 2.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Illumina Stock Performance

Shares of Illumina stock opened at $141.88 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.80, a P/E/G ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 1.42. Illumina, Inc. has a 52 week low of $75.24 and a 52 week high of $155.53. The company has a quick ratio of 1.36, a current ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $126.86 and its two-hundred day moving average is $127.86.

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The life sciences company reported $1.15 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.05 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $1.09 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.07 billion. Illumina had a net margin of 19.42% and a return on equity of 31.01%. The firm’s revenue was up 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.97 earnings per share. Illumina has set its FY 2026 guidance at 5.150-5.300 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Illumina, Inc. will post 5.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.