Based on the aggregated intelligence of 170,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, genetic analysis specialist Illumina (Nasdaq: ILMN) has earned a respected four-star ranking.
With that in mind, let's take a closer look at Illumina's business and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.
Illumina facts
Headquarters (Founded) | San Diego, Calif. (1998) |
Market Cap | $8.85 billion |
Industry | Life sciences tools and services |
Trailing-12-Month Revenue | $902.74 million |
Management | CEO Jay Flatley (since 1999) CFO Christian Henry (since 2005) |
Return on Equity (Average, Past 3 Years) | 9.1% |
Cash / Debt | $894.3 million / $311.6 million |
Competitors |
Affymetrix (Nasdaq: AFFX) Beckman Coulter (NYSE: BEC) General Electric (NYSE: GE) |
Sources: Capital IQ (a division of Standard & Poor's) and Motley Fool CAPS.
On CAPS, 93% of the 650 members who have rated Illumina believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These bulls include fundamentalsrock and RedDave.
Earlier this month, fundamentalsrock tapped Illumina as a great way to go for growth: "DNA sequencing is moving into mainstream pharma, and Illumina has the market share and technology. They will dominate for the foreseeable future a fast, fast growing market."
Over the next five years, Illumina is even expected to grow its bottom line at a brisk rate of 27.5% annually. That's faster than listed rivals like Affymetrix (7.5%), Beckman Coulter (8.9%), and General Electric (12.8%).
CAPS member RedDave expands on the outperform case:
Both research and medicine are rapidly becoming dependent on deep sequencing. We are now moving into a time where DNA sequencing is truly as important as a microscope. Illumina has a daunting lead. Even giants can become complacent, and this market has numerous "Davids" looking to pick up some scraps.
Until a very long sequence read technology is developed that can reliably produce single reads of over 10,000 bases, it is Illumina's market to lose. The wide-moat is filling.
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