National Pension Service Boosts Stake in Illumina, Inc. $ILMN

National Pension Service increased its stake in Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) by 29.4% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 46,284 shares of the life sciences company’s stock after purchasing an additional 10,529 shares during the quarter. National Pension Service’s holdings in Illumina were worth $4,396,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of ILMN. AlphaQuest LLC increased its position in Illumina by 181.4% in the third quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 1,559 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $148,000 after buying an additional 1,005 shares in the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System grew its stake in shares of Illumina by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 47,089 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $4,472,000 after acquiring an additional 832 shares during the period. Impact Partnership Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Illumina during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $744,000. Capital Investment Services of America Inc. increased its holdings in Illumina by 3.4% in the 3rd quarter. Capital Investment Services of America Inc. now owns 93,439 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $8,874,000 after acquiring an additional 3,069 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Archer Investment Corp raised its stake in Illumina by 12.9% during the 3rd quarter. Archer Investment Corp now owns 1,073 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $102,000 after acquiring an additional 123 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 89.42% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Illumina

In related news, insider Scott M. Davies sold 323 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $136.09, for a total transaction of $43,957.07. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 17,887 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,434,241.83. This represents a 1.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.17% of the company’s stock.

Illumina Stock Down 4.0%

Shares of ILMN stock opened at $135.43 on Wednesday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $138.50 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $115.74. Illumina, Inc. has a 52 week low of $68.70 and a 52 week high of $155.53. The stock has a market cap of $20.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.37, a PEG ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Illumina from $105.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, December 15th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Illumina from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 31st. Wall Street Zen upgraded Illumina from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, January 17th. Evercore ISI reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $155.00 price objective on shares of Illumina in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on Illumina from $135.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $127.18.

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.