Short Interest in Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) Grows By 10.2%

Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) saw a large increase in short interest in November. As of November 30th, there was short interest totalling 7,210,000 shares, an increase of 10.2% from the November 15th total of 6,540,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,900,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.8 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ILMN has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Stephens boosted their price objective on Illumina from $170.00 to $184.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Illumina from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Argus upgraded Illumina from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $150.00 target price for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 28th. HSBC upgraded Illumina from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $180.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reiterated an “equal weight” rating and set a $156.00 price objective on shares of Illumina in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $165.95.

Institutional Trading of Illumina

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Zacks Investment Management acquired a new stake in shares of Illumina in the 3rd quarter valued at $2,924,000. Freemont Management S.A. bought a new stake in Illumina during the third quarter worth about $1,565,000. Weybosset Research & Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Illumina by 92.0% during the third quarter. Weybosset Research & Management LLC now owns 18,052 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $2,354,000 after buying an additional 8,650 shares in the last quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Illumina by 176.3% in the second quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 7,176 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $749,000 after acquiring an additional 4,579 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Illumina by 3.6% in the 2nd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 399,966 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $41,748,000 after acquiring an additional 13,725 shares in the last quarter. 89.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Illumina Stock Performance

NASDAQ ILMN traded down $2.56 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $143.87. The company had a trading volume of 1,808,556 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,009,685. Illumina has a fifty-two week low of $100.08 and a fifty-two week high of $156.66. The stock has a market cap of $22.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -14.44 and a beta of 1.11. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $144.27 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $128.44. The company has a quick ratio of 1.85, a current ratio of 2.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94.

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 4th. The life sciences company reported $1.14 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.88 by $0.26. The company had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.08 billion. Illumina had a positive return on equity of 7.29% and a negative net margin of 36.10%. Illumina’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.33 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Illumina will post 4.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.