Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) Upgraded by JPMorgan Chase & Co. to “Overweight” Rating

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) was upgraded by equities researchers at JPMorgan Chase & Co. from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a $185.00 target price on the life sciences company’s stock, up from their prior target price of $125.00. JPMorgan Chase & Co.‘s target price suggests a potential upside of 15.60% from the stock’s current price.

Other equities analysts have also issued reports about the stock. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Illumina from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Canaccord Genuity Group reduced their price target on shares of Illumina from $150.00 to $140.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Evercore reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Illumina in a report on Friday, May 1st. Wall Street Zen lowered Illumina from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 9th. Finally, Guggenheim lifted their target price on Illumina from $170.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, June 1st. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $142.13.

Illumina Trading Up 1.3%

ILMN opened at $160.03 on Wednesday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $139.27 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $134.20. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 1.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 1.75 and a quick ratio of 1.36. Illumina has a 1-year low of $85.00 and a 1-year high of $177.22.

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

Insider Activity at Illumina

In other news, CAO Scott D. Ericksen sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $150.10, for a total transaction of $225,150.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 14,946 shares in the company, valued at $2,243,394.60. This trade represents a 9.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, SVP Patricia Leckman sold 783 shares of Illumina stock in a transaction on Friday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.59, for a total value of $127,307.97. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 21,259 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,456,500.81. The trade was a 3.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 1,003,154 shares of company stock valued at $155,600,208 over the last ninety days. 2.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in Illumina by 17.5% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 832,690 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $79,081,000 after purchasing an additional 124,246 shares during the period. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co acquired a new position in shares of Illumina during the third quarter worth about $2,319,000. Caprock Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Illumina during the third quarter worth approximately $1,479,000. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in Illumina by 2,792.2% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 944,500 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $124,145,000 after acquiring an additional 911,843 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors lifted its stake in Illumina by 20.0% in the third quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 19,976,850 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $1,897,178,000 after acquiring an additional 3,331,542 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.42% of the company’s stock.

Illumina Company Profile

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.