Bull of the Day: Illumina (ILMN)
The market bounced back Monday after a rough week last week. We are not out of the woods yet as a huge CPI report looms on Wednesday. That sort of risk event has the power to rock financial markets. Investors looking for stocks to buy should look outside of the crowded names out there. Yes, there are opportunities outside of the Mag 7. One way to uncover these opportunities is by leaning on the Zacks Rank. Stocks with favorable Zacks Ranks have strong earnings trends which could spell profits in the future.
Today’s Bull of the Day is one such stock. It’s Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) Illumina (ILMN). 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.
This is a biotech company that makes money, not a pie in the sky idea. Current year EPS is forecast to come in at $3.62. That number has more than doubled in the last sixty days. Over that period, six analysts have increased their earnings estimates for the company. That huge move higher in our Zacks Consensus Estimate is the reason why the stock is currently a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).
Next year’s number is forecast to grow by 24% to $4.50. That puts forward PE at 34.3x. Compare that to an industry average of a negative PE.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
A quick look at the Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise Chart shows how the expectations have changed over time. Estimates started sky high in 2021 and spent three years moving in a negative direction. That trend has changed as earnings expectations have bottomed out and are now beginning to tick higher. That turnaround in earnings could be exactly what this stock needs to see in order to get back to highs over $500.
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Illumina, Inc. (ILMN) : Free Stock Analysis Report