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Illumina (ILMN) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

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Illumina (ILMN - Free Report) closed at $305.63 in the latest trading session, marking a +0.05% move from the prior day. This change lagged the S&P 500's 0.22% gain on the day. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.59%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.16%.

Heading into today, shares of the genetic testing tools company had lost 2.58% over the past month, lagging the Medical sector's loss of 0.84% and the S&P 500's gain of 0.49% in that time.

ILMN will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release, which is expected to be January 29, 2019. The company is expected to report EPS of $1.36, down 5.56% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $863.09 million, up 10.94% from the year-ago period.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for ILMN should also be noted by investors. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 2.66% higher within the past month. ILMN is currently a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Digging into valuation, ILMN currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 47.33. This valuation marks a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 24.84.

Also, we should mention that ILMN has a PEG ratio of 2.02. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The Medical - Biomedical and Genetics industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.5 as of yesterday's close.

The Medical - Biomedical and Genetics industry is part of the Medical sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 53, which puts it in the top 21% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

To follow ILMN in the coming trading sessions, be sure to utilize Zacks.com.


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