State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D Cuts Stock Holdings in Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN)

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D lowered its stake in shares of Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) by 35.5% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 59,302 shares of the life sciences company’s stock after selling 32,700 shares during the quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D’s holdings in Illumina were worth $6,190,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Wellington Shields & Co. LLC increased its position in shares of Illumina by 4.4% during the second quarter. Wellington Shields & Co. LLC now owns 32,772 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $3,421,000 after acquiring an additional 1,379 shares during the period. Carson Advisory Inc. increased its position in shares of Illumina by 60.4% during the second quarter. Carson Advisory Inc. now owns 2,655 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $277,000 after acquiring an additional 1,000 shares during the period. Headlands Technologies LLC grew its stake in shares of Illumina by 138.7% during the second quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 7,269 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $759,000 after purchasing an additional 4,224 shares in the last quarter. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Illumina by 30.2% during the second quarter. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC now owns 2,556 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $267,000 after purchasing an additional 593 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Illumina by 23.3% during the second quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 84,841 shares of the life sciences company’s stock worth $8,856,000 after purchasing an additional 16,043 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.42% of the company’s stock.

Illumina Trading Up 2.3 %

NASDAQ ILMN opened at $129.18 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.58 billion, a P/E ratio of -15.85 and a beta of 1.15. Illumina, Inc. has a 52-week low of $89.00 and a 52-week high of $152.87. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $123.36 and a 200 day moving average price of $120.69. The company has a quick ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04.

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The life sciences company reported $0.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.12 by $0.24. The firm had revenue of $1.11 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.09 billion. Illumina had a negative net margin of 68.73% and a positive return on equity of 3.08%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.32 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Illumina, Inc. will post 3.62 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ILMN has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Illumina from $131.00 to $133.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Daiwa Capital Markets upgraded shares of Illumina from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $120.00 to $154.00 in a research note on Friday, August 16th. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Illumina from $140.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Illumina in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. They set a “buy” rating for the company. Finally, Barclays upgraded shares of Illumina from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $125.00 target price for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $151.05.

Illumina Company 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.