Sector Gamma AS Takes Position in Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN)

Sector Gamma AS acquired a new stake in Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 40,592 shares of the life sciences company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,652,000. Illumina makes up 1.4% of Sector Gamma AS’s portfolio, making the stock its 25th biggest position.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ILMN. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Illumina by 15.0% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 17,967,758 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $2,466,614,000 after purchasing an additional 2,336,935 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC grew its stake in shares of Illumina by 120.0% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,768,355 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $242,758,000 after buying an additional 964,709 shares in the last quarter. abrdn plc grew its stake in shares of Illumina by 764.9% in the fourth quarter. abrdn plc now owns 339,023 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $47,206,000 after buying an additional 299,827 shares in the last quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. grew its stake in shares of Illumina by 245.7% in the third quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 417,876 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $57,366,000 after buying an additional 296,990 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in shares of Illumina by 6.6% in the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 3,648,935 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $500,926,000 after buying an additional 225,074 shares in the last quarter. 89.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Illumina

In other news, CEO Jacob Thaysen purchased 7,330 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were bought at an average cost of $135.29 per share, for a total transaction of $991,675.70. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 14,861 shares in the company, valued at $2,010,544.69. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.17% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on ILMN. HSBC lowered Illumina from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. Barclays increased their price target on Illumina from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. OTR Global reissued a “mixed” rating on shares of Illumina in a report on Wednesday, March 20th. TD Cowen downgraded Illumina from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and set a $144.00 price target for the company. in a report on Thursday, January 4th. Finally, Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $170.00 price target on shares of Illumina in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $167.70.

Illumina Stock Performance

Shares of Illumina stock traded up $1.23 on Friday, reaching $122.28. 829,331 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,470,247. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.66. The company’s 50-day moving average is $131.51 and its two-hundred day moving average is $127.39. The firm has a market cap of $19.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -16.66 and a beta of 1.19. Illumina, Inc. has a 1-year low of $89.00 and a 1-year high of $213.91.

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The life sciences company reported $0.14 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.01 by $0.13. Illumina had a positive return on equity of 2.20% and a negative net margin of 25.78%. The firm had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.09 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.14 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Illumina, Inc. will post 0.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.