Sector Gamma AS Buys New Shares in Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN)

Sector Gamma AS bought a new stake in Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm bought 40,592 shares of the life sciences company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,652,000. Illumina makes up 1.4% of Sector Gamma AS’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 25th largest position.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of ILMN. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Illumina during the third quarter valued at about $30,000. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Illumina by 344.6% during the third quarter. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC now owns 249 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 193 shares during the period. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Illumina during the fourth quarter valued at about $37,000. Gradient Investments LLC raised its holdings in shares of Illumina by 375.0% during the fourth quarter. Gradient Investments LLC now owns 285 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 225 shares during the period. Finally, North Star Investment Management Corp. raised its holdings in shares of Illumina by 183.0% during the fourth quarter. North Star Investment Management Corp. now owns 300 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 194 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.42% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Illumina

In other Illumina news, CEO Jacob Thaysen purchased 7,330 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were bought at an average cost of $135.29 per share, for a total transaction of $991,675.70. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer now owns 14,861 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,010,544.69. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.17% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Illumina Stock Performance

Shares of Illumina stock traded up $1.23 on Friday, reaching $122.28. 829,331 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,470,247. Illumina, Inc. has a 52 week low of $89.00 and a 52 week high of $213.91. The company has a 50 day moving average of $131.51 and a 200 day moving average of $127.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $19.47 billion, a PE ratio of -16.66 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 1.66 and a quick ratio of 1.29.

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The life sciences company reported $0.14 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.01 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.09 billion. Illumina had a negative net margin of 25.78% and a positive return on equity of 2.20%. The company’s revenue was up 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.14 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Illumina, Inc. will post 0.91 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ILMN has been the topic of several research reports. OTR Global reiterated a “mixed” rating on shares of Illumina in a report on Wednesday, March 20th. HSBC lowered shares of Illumina from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 16th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Illumina from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. TD Cowen lowered shares of Illumina from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and set a $144.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Thursday, January 4th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $253.00 target price on shares of Illumina in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Illumina presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $167.70.

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.