Principal Financial Group Inc. Reduces Stock Holdings in Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN)

Principal Financial Group Inc. lessened its stake in shares of Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) by 9.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 487,042 shares of the life sciences company’s stock after selling 48,857 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned about 0.31% of Illumina worth $63,515,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Industrial Alliance Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Illumina during the second quarter worth about $34,000. TD Private Client Wealth LLC grew its stake in Illumina by 58.5% during the 3rd quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 382 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $50,000 after buying an additional 141 shares during the last quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV increased its position in Illumina by 65.1% during the third quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 426 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $56,000 after buying an additional 168 shares during the period. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. purchased a new stake in Illumina in the second quarter valued at approximately $61,000. Finally, Private Trust Co. NA boosted its holdings in shares of Illumina by 81.2% in the third quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 473 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $62,000 after acquiring an additional 212 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.42% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ILMN has been the subject of several research reports. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Illumina from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Argus raised shares of Illumina from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $150.00 target price for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 28th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “equal weight” rating and set a $156.00 price target on shares of Illumina in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. HSBC raised Illumina from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $180.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Piper Sandler lowered their target price on Illumina from $195.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $165.95.

Illumina Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:ILMN opened at $136.02 on Friday. Illumina, Inc. has a 12 month low of $100.08 and a 12 month high of $156.66. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -13.66 and a beta of 1.11. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $143.91 and its 200-day simple moving average is $129.69. 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 (NASDAQ:ILMN) last posted its earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The life sciences company reported $1.14 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.08 billion. Illumina’s revenue was down 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.33 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Illumina, Inc. will post 4.11 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.