What happened
Shares of Illumina Inc. (ILMN -2.97%) climbed 16.1%% in July, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence, after the genomic-sequencing company announced strong second-quarter 2018 results.
Nearly all of Illumina's gains came on the final trading day of last month after the company confirmed that its quarterly revenue had climbed 25% year over year, to $830 million, which translated to 74% growth in adjusted earnings, to $212 million, or $1.43 per share. Both the top and bottom lines easily outpaced expectations for earnings of $1.11 per share on revenue of $787 million.
IMAGE SOURCE: GETTY IMAGES.
So what
Illumina CEO Francis deSouza credited the company's growth to "broad demand across applications, systems and geographies." He added that sequencing and array consumables, as well as lab and other services, each climbed over 30% year over year, "highlighting the growing interest in genomic information and its application to research, clinical and consumer markets."
The company also delivered noteworthy new products including a new S4 200 cycle kit on its NovaSeq platform for single-cell and exome sequencing, as well as the NovaSeq S Prime (SP) flow cell, designed for smaller applications that require lower sequencing output.
Now what
If that wasn't enough, Illumina now expects full-year sales to grow roughly 20% (up from between 15% and 16% previously), which should mean full-year adjusted earnings of between $5.35 and $5.45 (up from between $4.75 and $4.85 before).
In the end, this beat-and-raise performance gave investors more-than-enough reason to celebrate and drive the stock price to a fresh all-time high. I won't be the least bit surprised if the company's upward momentum continues for the foreseeable future.
