Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) Upgraded to Buy by HSBC

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) was upgraded by HSBC from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Thursday, Briefing.com reports. The brokerage presently has a $180.00 price target on the life sciences company’s stock. HSBC’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 25.10% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other research analysts also recently commented on the company. TD Cowen raised Illumina from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $126.00 to $144.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. Scotiabank lowered their target price on Illumina from $176.00 to $164.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. StockNews.com started coverage on Illumina in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. They set a “buy” rating for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Illumina from $130.00 to $125.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Argus raised Illumina from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $150.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $152.05.

Illumina Stock Down 2.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ ILMN opened at $143.89 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.92 billion, a P/E ratio of -17.66 and a beta of 1.15. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $131.95 and its 200 day moving average is $120.95. Illumina has a 52 week low of $89.00 and a 52 week high of $151.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 1.11.

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The life sciences company reported $0.36 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.12 by $0.24. The business had revenue of $1.11 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.09 billion. Illumina had a positive return on equity of 3.08% and a negative net margin of 68.73%. Illumina’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.32 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Illumina will post 3.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Illumina

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of ILMN. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC purchased a new stake in Illumina in the 4th quarter valued at $334,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of Illumina by 4.9% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,258 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $310,000 after purchasing an additional 105 shares during the last quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV increased its position in shares of Illumina by 86.8% during the 1st quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 284 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 132 shares during the last quarter. Czech National Bank increased its position in shares of Illumina by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 27,941 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $3,837,000 after purchasing an additional 129 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Park Avenue Securities LLC increased its position in shares of Illumina by 269.3% during the 1st quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 5,694 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $782,000 after purchasing an additional 4,152 shares during the last quarter. 89.42% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.