Illumina Q1 Earnings Rise, 2017 Forecast In-Line

Written by StockNews.com

Illumina, Inc. (ILMN) late Tuesday posted solid first quarter earnings results and offered a mixed outlook, with second quarter guidance well below the street, but full-year estimates in-line with expectations.

The San Diego-based genetic analysis specialist reported Q1:

earnings per share (EPS) of $0.64, which was in-line with the Wall Street consensus estimate of $0.64,

revenues rose 4.5% from last year to $598 million, beating out analysts’ view for $590.51 million,

gross margins in the latest period were 61.5%, down from 69.4% in the prior year period. Excluding special items, gross margin was 66.4%, however, but still down from 71.3% last year on the same basis.

Looking ahead, ILMN forecast:

Q2 EPS of $0.65 to $0.70, well below the $0.87 that analysts are looking for. For the full year, Illumina’s forecast was in-line with expectations, however.

Francis deSouza, President and CEO, commented via press release:

“We are pleased with our first quarter results.

We are witnessing an exciting uptake of the NovaSeq platform with more than 135 orders placed in Q1, and look forward to the advancements in genomics this instrument will enable for years to come.”

…Year-to-date, ILMN has gained 41.75%, versus a 7.18% rise in the benchmark S&P 500 index during the same period.

ILMN currently has a StockNews.com POWR Rating of A (Strong Buy), and is ranked #3 of 271 stocks in the Biotech category.