Why Illumina Inc. (ILMN) Crashed Last Week

We recently compiled a list of the These 10 Firms Were Last Week’s Worst Performers. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Illumina Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) stands against the other stocks.

Volatile trading persisted on the stock market last week as investors scrambled to react to a flurry of positive and negative news that sparked both buying and selling positions.

On Friday alone, all Wall Street main indices fell into the red territory, with trading dampened mainly by tariff threats and expectations of a higher inflation rate in the US.

Ten companies under mixed sectors also mirrored the decline, with each booking double-digit slumps. This article details which 10 companies suffered the most last week and what specifically caused investor pessimism.

To come up with last week’s worst performers, we considered only the stocks with at least $2 billion in market capitalization and $5 million in daily trading volume.

A research facility with medical professionals surrounded by diagnostic equipment.

Illumina Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN)

Illumina Inc. saw its share prices last week drop by 9.56 percent to $111.06 apiece from the $132.74 apiece on January 31, as investor sentiment was weighed down by an analyst’s downgraded rating for the company’s stock.

On Friday, TD Cowen cut its stock rating for ILMN to “hold” following poor earnings performance in the full year 2024.

In its earnings release, ILMN widened its net loss for the full year 2024 to $1.2 billion from the $1.16 billion registered in 2023 amid a 2.9-percent drop in revenues at $4.37 billion versus $4.5 billion year-on-year.

The company, however, achieved a net income of $187 million last quarter, a reversal from the $176 million net loss registered in the same period a year earlier.

According to TD Cowen, its downgraded outlook also considered weaker-than-expected next-generation sequencing consumable growth, increasing competition, and geopolitical risks in China.

Overall ILMN ranks 10th on our list of last week’s worst performers. While we acknowledge the potential of ILMN as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is as promising as ILMN but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and Complete List of 59 AI Companies Under $2 Billion in Market Cap.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.