Canada Pension Plan Investment Board Grows Stock Position in Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN)

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board lifted its holdings in shares of Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) by 69.6% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 473,750 shares of the life sciences company’s stock after acquiring an additional 194,399 shares during the period. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board owned approximately 0.30% of Illumina worth $49,450,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. WCM Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Illumina by 2,232.3% during the 1st quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 3,377,221 shares of the life sciences company’s stock valued at $463,760,000 after purchasing an additional 3,232,418 shares in the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA increased its position in shares of Illumina by 462.5% in 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 acquiring an additional 1,997,010 shares during the period. Capital World Investors purchased a new position in Illumina in the 4th quarter worth $271,753,000. Coatue Management LLC acquired a new stake in Illumina during the 4th quarter worth about $119,285,000. Finally, Findlay Park Partners LLP purchased a new stake in Illumina during the 1st quarter valued at about $100,120,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.42% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on ILMN. UBS Group raised their price objective on 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 raised shares of Illumina from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $120.00 to $154.00 in a report on Friday, August 16th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of Illumina in a report on Monday, June 3rd. They set a “hold” rating and a $115.00 target price for the company. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Illumina in a report on Thursday, August 29th. They issued a “buy” rating on the stock. Finally, Barclays raised Illumina from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $125.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Illumina currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $151.05.

Illumina Price Performance

NASDAQ:ILMN opened at $131.20 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $125.25 and a 200 day moving average price of $120.57. The stock has a market cap of $20.90 billion, a PE ratio of -16.10 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 1.11. Illumina, Inc. has a one year low of $89.00 and a one year high of $148.19.

Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The life sciences company reported $0.36 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 the consensus estimate of $1.09 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.32 earnings per share. Illumina’s quarterly revenue was down 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Illumina, Inc. will post 3.62 EPS 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.