Stifel Affirms Buy Rating on Illumina (ILMN) Stock

Analysts at Stifel are bullish about Illumina, Inc.’s (NASDAQ:ILMN) prospects despite the stock capitulating 36% year to date. On May 28, the analysts reiterated a Buy rating on the stock and a $135 price target.

The firm’s confidence stems from recent investor meetings with Illumina’s CFO Ankur Dhingra and Interim Head of Investor Relations Brian Blanchett, offering valuable insights into the company’s performance and future outlook, especially regarding consumables beyond China.

Even though academic spending slowed in Q1, sequencing activity remains strong, and the clinical outlook looks positive. Illumina has a 68.6% gross margin and $4.3 billion in annual revenue. While Stifel analysts see some risk in expecting the same 30%+ growth for the rest of the year, management remains confident in its 2025 forecasts.

Illumina’s high-throughput (HT) consumables growth framework remains on track, with new product launches positioned as key drivers of future success. Stifel analysts caution that a complete loss of China revenue could lead to little or no growth in 2026, yet they see it as a potentially beneficial reset for the company’s profit and loss statement, which could strengthen the stock’s long-term outlook.

Illumina is a life science company that develops and manufactures tools and systems for genomics research. It offers a range of products and services, including sequencing platforms and microarrays that enable clinicians to analyze genetic information and make discoveries.

While we acknowledge the potential of Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than ILMN and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

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Disclosure: None.