Illumina Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (NASDAQ:ILMN)

Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) was the target of some unusual options trading on Thursday. Stock traders purchased 10,974 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 212% compared to the average daily volume of 3,514 call options.

Insider Activity at Illumina

In related news, CFO Ankur Dhingra bought 6,100 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 12th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $81.21 per share, for a total transaction of $495,381.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 24,906 shares in the company, valued at $2,022,616.26. The trade was a 32.44% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 2.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Illumina

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Fourth Dimension Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of Illumina in the fourth quarter valued at $40,000. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich purchased a new position in shares of Illumina in the fourth quarter valued at $45,000. Assetmark Inc. grew its position in shares of Illumina by 954.8% in the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 327 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $44,000 after purchasing an additional 296 shares in the last quarter. Rise Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Illumina by 173.6% in the first quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 353 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 224 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lee Danner & Bass Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Illumina in the fourth quarter valued at $48,000. 89.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently commented on ILMN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on Illumina from $120.00 to $85.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 9th. Stephens reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $105.00 target price on shares of Illumina in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their target price on Illumina from $128.00 to $112.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their target price on Illumina from $87.00 to $99.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 11th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on Illumina from $127.00 to $90.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Illumina has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $127.39.

Illumina Stock Performance

Shares of Illumina stock opened at $94.79 on Friday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $82.69 and its 200 day simple moving average is $99.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.01 billion, a P/E ratio of -15.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 1.32. Illumina has a 12 month low of $68.70 and a 12 month high of $156.66. The company has a current ratio of 1.86, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63.

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The life sciences company reported $0.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.96 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $1.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.03 billion. Illumina had a positive return on equity of 25.54% and a negative net margin of 22.25%. The business’s revenue was down 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.98 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Illumina will post 4.51 EPS for the current year.

Illumina Company Profile

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.