Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) Director Keith Meister Sells 235,000 Shares of Stock

Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) Director Keith Meister sold 235,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $163.63, for a total value of $38,453,050.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 2,830,452 shares in the company, valued at $463,146,860.76. The trade was a 7.67% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Illumina Trading Up 0.9%

NASDAQ:ILMN opened at $164.40 on Tuesday. Illumina, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $78.79 and a fifty-two week high of $165.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 1.75 and a quick ratio of 1.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.87 billion, a PE ratio of 29.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.70 and a beta of 1.50. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $134.48 and its 200-day simple moving average is $132.39.

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Capital World Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Illumina by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 20,101,173 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $2,636,483,000 after buying an additional 124,323 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Illumina by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,190,114 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $811,895,000 after buying an additional 190,324 shares in the last quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Illumina by 45.5% during the first quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 5,923,173 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $715,579,000 after buying an additional 1,851,848 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Illumina by 30.3% during the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 4,426,126 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $580,531,000 after buying an additional 1,028,099 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Illumina by 4.8% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,869,047 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $375,260,000 after buying an additional 130,139 shares in the last quarter. 89.42% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key Headlines Impacting Illumina

Here are the key news stories impacting Illumina this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Guggenheim raised its price target on Illumina to $180 from $170 and kept a Buy rating, signaling continued confidence in the company’s upside potential and valuation. Benzinga article
• Positive Sentiment: Integrated DNA Technologies said its oncology research workflows are now optimized on Illumina software, which could support broader adoption of Illumina’s ecosystem and strengthen its positioning in cancer research tools. Business Wire article
• Neutral Sentiment: Chief accounting officer Scott D. Ericksen sold a small number of shares under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan; while routine, it adds to recent insider selling activity. SEC filing
• Negative Sentiment: Director Keith A. Meister sold a very large block of Illumina shares in multiple transactions around May 28-June 1, reducing his stake materially. Large insider sales can weigh on sentiment even when they do not necessarily reflect operational weakness. SEC filing

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the company. Royal Bank Of Canada assumed coverage on Illumina in a research note on Thursday, May 14th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $170.00 price target for the company. Evercore restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Illumina in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Daiwa Securities Group upgraded Illumina from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $155.00 price target for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 14th. Robert W. Baird set a $137.00 target price on Illumina in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group decreased their target price on Illumina from $150.00 to $140.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 1st. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Illumina currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $138.38.

About Illumina

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.