Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) Raised to “Strong-Buy” at Hsbc Global Res

Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating in a research note issued to investors on Thursday morning, Zacks.com reports.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. TD Cowen raised shares of Illumina from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $126.00 to $144.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. Daiwa Capital Markets upgraded shares of Illumina from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $120.00 to $154.00 in a research report on Friday, August 16th. HSBC upgraded Illumina from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $180.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Stephens reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $170.00 price objective on shares of Illumina in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, Argus upgraded Illumina from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $150.00 target price for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Illumina currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $154.33.

Illumina Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of Illumina stock opened at $146.07 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04. The company has a market capitalization of $23.27 billion, a P/E ratio of -17.92 and a beta of 1.15. Illumina has a 12-month low of $89.00 and a 12-month high of $151.40. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $132.73 and a 200 day simple moving average of $121.10.

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) last announced 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. Illumina had a negative net margin of 68.73% and a positive return on equity of 3.08%. The company had revenue of $1.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.09 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.32 EPS. Illumina’s revenue was down 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Illumina will post 3.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Illumina

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ILMN. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. increased its position in Illumina by 426.0% during the 1st quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 15,460 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $2,123,000 after purchasing an additional 12,521 shares during the period. Findlay Park Partners LLP bought a new position in Illumina in the first quarter worth about $100,120,000. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. bought a new position in Illumina in the first quarter worth about $4,527,000. US Bancorp DE lifted its holdings in Illumina by 33.9% in the first quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 31,600 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $4,339,000 after buying an additional 8,001 shares during the period. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its position in Illumina by 41.4% during the 1st quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 390,035 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $53,560,000 after acquiring an additional 114,263 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.42% of the company’s stock.

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.