Norges Bank Takes $228.71 Million Position in Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN)

Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor acquired 1,711,544 shares of the life sciences company’s stock, valued at approximately $228,714,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. WCM Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Illumina by 26.6% during the fourth quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 4,129,855 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $551,625,000 after acquiring an additional 867,673 shares in the last quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Illumina during the 4th quarter worth approximately $91,714,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its position in Illumina by 40.5% during the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 2,168,057 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $282,735,000 after purchasing an additional 625,245 shares in the last quarter. Nikko Asset Management Americas Inc. bought a new position in Illumina in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $65,813,000. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its position in Illumina by 116.9% in the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 865,546 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $115,663,000 after buying an additional 466,519 shares in the last quarter. 89.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Illumina Price Performance

ILMN stock opened at $80.00 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.42, a current ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63. The firm has a market cap of $12.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -10.42, a PEG ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.17. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $102.80 and its 200 day simple moving average is $126.82. Illumina, Inc. has a 12-month low of $79.30 and a 12-month high of $156.66.

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The life sciences company reported $0.86 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.92 by ($0.06). Illumina had a positive return on equity of 13.37% and a negative net margin of 27.95%. On average, analysts expect that Illumina, Inc. will post 4.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently commented on ILMN shares. Barclays reiterated an “underweight” rating on shares of Illumina in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on Illumina from $127.00 to $90.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on Illumina from $150.00 to $136.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. TD Cowen lowered shares of Illumina from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $177.00 to $140.00 in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res downgraded shares of Illumina from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $140.90.

Illumina 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.