Leerink Partnrs Research Analysts Increase Earnings Estimates for Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN)

Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) – Analysts at Leerink Partnrs boosted their FY2024 earnings per share estimates for Illumina in a research report issued on Tuesday, September 17th. Leerink Partnrs analyst P. Souda now expects that the life sciences company will post earnings of $3.86 per share for the year, up from their previous forecast of $3.84. The consensus estimate for Illumina’s current full-year earnings is $3.62 per share. Leerink Partnrs also issued estimates for Illumina’s Q4 2024 earnings at $0.92 EPS, Q1 2025 earnings at $0.95 EPS, Q2 2025 earnings at $1.07 EPS, Q4 2025 earnings at $1.25 EPS and FY2026 earnings at $5.30 EPS.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on ILMN. Argus raised Illumina from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $150.00 target price on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 28th. TD Cowen raised Illumina from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $126.00 to $144.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. Barclays upgraded Illumina from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $125.00 target price for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. Scotiabank cut their target price on shares of Illumina from $176.00 to $164.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, Daiwa Capital Markets raised shares of Illumina from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $120.00 to $154.00 in a research note on Friday, August 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Illumina has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $151.05.

Illumina Stock Performance

ILMN opened at $134.39 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 1.11. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -16.49 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a fifty day moving average of $124.94 and a 200 day moving average of $120.71. Illumina has a fifty-two week low of $89.00 and a fifty-two week high of $148.19.

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The life sciences company reported $0.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.12 by $0.24. Illumina had a negative net margin of 68.73% and a positive return on equity of 3.08%. The business had revenue of $1.11 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.09 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.32 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 5.4% on a year-over-year basis.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Illumina

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. WCM Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Illumina by 2,232.3% during the first quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 3,377,221 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $463,760,000 after acquiring an additional 3,232,418 shares in the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA raised its position in Illumina by 462.5% during the 2nd quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 2,428,760 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $253,514,000 after purchasing an additional 1,997,010 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors purchased a new stake in shares of Illumina in the 4th quarter worth $271,753,000. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Illumina during the 4th quarter worth $264,636,000. Finally, Millennium Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Illumina by 305.0% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,485,599 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $155,067,000 after buying an additional 1,118,747 shares during the period. 89.42% of the stock is currently owned by 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.