Illumina (ILMN)
Forward P/E is 51.02x against a peer median of 30.58x, a ratio of 1.67x — well above the 1.15 fair-band ceiling — with trailing P/E 54.12x and PEG 4.54. Latest-quarter revenue grew 9.4% year over year (PRIMARY, EDGAR), only a little above the group pace, and the PEG is well above 1.5, so no growth exception applies. Delivered demand check: the Life sciences tools & services group's median growth was 8.1% year over year — demand rising, but not fast enough to pay for a two-thirds premium over peers.
What would change this label: Move to FAIRLY PRICED if the forward P/E compresses to about 35.2x or below (1.15x the peer median) at unchanged estimates, or if revenue growth rises above 20% year over year for two quarters with the PEG falling below about 1.5. Move further from fair value if the forward P/E rises above about 61.2x (2.0x the peer median) while growth stays near 10% year over year.
Illumina sells machines that read DNA, used in research and medical testing. Its shares cost far more than similar companies — about 51 times expected earnings against about 31 times for peers — even though its sales grow only a little faster. That makes the shares overvalued.
Both lines start at 100 on 2020-09-01. Over the full window Illumina returned -18.17% and the S&P 500 +118.28% (price returns; dividends not reinvested). Worst peak-to-trough fall for Illumina: -86.4% (2021-08-16 to 2025-04-08). Source: Nasdaq official daily history.
What the label rests on
Forward P/E is 51.02x against a peer median of 30.58x, a ratio of 1.67x — well above the 1.15 fair-band ceiling — with trailing P/E 54.12x and PEG 4.54. Latest-quarter revenue grew 9.4% year over year (PRIMARY, EDGAR), only a little above the group pace, and the PEG is well above 1.5, so no growth exception applies. Delivered demand check: the Life sciences tools & services group's median growth was 8.1% year over year — demand rising, but not fast enough to pay for a two-thirds premium over peers. The company’s forward P/E is 51.0× against a peer median of 30.6×. Its own history: UNVERIFIED — no sourced range available. Sector demand read: Delivered demand check: the Life sciences tools & services group's median latest-quarter revenue growth was 8.1% year over year (SEC filings) — demand rising. This company grew 9.4%, only slightly faster than that pace. Latest-quarter sales growth was +9.4% versus a year earlier (SEC filings).
| Company | Price (Oct 28, 2026) | Forward P/E | Trailing P/E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Illumina (ILMN) | $290.65 | 51.0× | 54.1× |
| IQV | — | 20.2× | 34.0× |
| WAT | — | 30.9× | 216.8× |
| A | — | 27.8× | 36.0× |
| MTD | — | 34.9× | 38.6× |
| CRL | — | 30.6× | — |
| Peer median | 30.6× |
Multiples: stockanalysis.com (SECONDARY, S&P Global data), fetched Oct 28, 2026. Peer set chosen by sector; the median is the middle value of the set. The label and its numbers were recorded in the programme’s label registry on Oct 28, 2026 and will be scored at 6 and 12 months.
Sales, profit and cash
Gross margin = gross profit divided by sales, from SEC filings.
Free cash flow = cash from operations minus spending on plant and equipment, both from the company’s SEC cash-flow statement. Gaps are quarters where that spending line is not separately tagged in the filings — shown as gaps, never estimated.
| Quarter | Sales | Gross margin | Net income | EPS (GAAP, diluted) | Free cash flow |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q/E Jun 2026 2026-06-28 | $1.2B | 66.4% | $207M | 1.35 | $161M |
| Q/E Mar 2026 2026-03-29 | $1.1B | 66.1% | $134M | 0.87 | $251M |
| Q/E Dec 2025 2025-12-28 | $1.2B | 65.5% | $334M | — | $266M |
| Q/E Sep 2025 2025-09-28 | $1.1B | 67.6% | $150M | 0.98 | $253M |
| Q/E Jun 2025 2025-06-29 | $1.1B | 65.6% | $235M | 1.49 | $204M |
| Q/E Mar 2025 2025-03-30 | $1.0B | 65.6% | $131M | 0.82 | $208M |
| Q/E Dec 2024 2024-12-29 | $1.1B | 65.9% | $186M | — | $335M |
| Q/E Sep 2024 2024-09-29 | $1.1B | 69.0% | $705M | 4.42 | $284M |
| Q/E Jun 2024 2024-06-30 | $1.1B | 64.8% | $-2.0B | -12.48 | $49M |
| Q/E Mar 2024 2024-03-31 | $1.1B | 62.0% | $-126M | -0.79 | $41M |
| Q/E Dec 2023 2023-12-31 | $1.1B | 60.1% | $-176M | — | $173M |
| Q/E Oct 2023 2023-10-01 | $1.1B | 61.1% | $-754M | -4.77 | $94M |
The last twelve reported quarters. Full 24-quarter history sits in the data pack behind this page. A dash means the figure is not tagged as a standalone quarter in the company’s SEC facts (the usual case is the fourth quarter, which many companies only report inside the full-year filing) — it is missing, not zero.
Earnings: getting better or worse?
Each box is one quarter’s earnings per share (EPS). Green means EPS was higher than the same quarter a year earlier; red means lower; a dash means the figure is not tagged in the filings.
Basis: GAAP diluted EPS from SEC company facts, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
Key facts
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Company (legal name in filings) | ILLUMINA, INC. |
| Chief executive | Jacob Thaysen (source: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/illumina-to-announce-third-quarter-2026-financial-results-on-thursday-october-29-2026-302902965.html) |
| Sector | Health Care — Life Sciences Tools & Services — sells DNA sequencing machines and gene-testing products |
| Share price (Oct 28, 2026) | $290.65 |
| Market value (market cap) | $42.2B — share price times shares outstanding of 151,000,000 (SEC filings; SEC EDGAR dei EntityCommonStockSharesOutstanding (latest)) |
| Sales, last twelve months | $4.5B |
| Net income, last twelve months | $825M |
| Free cash flow, last twelve months | $931M |
| Latest reported quarter | Q/E Jun 2026 (of 24 quarters in the data pack) |
| Six-year price return vs S&P 500 | -18.17% vs +118.28% |
| Worst peak-to-trough fall | -86.4% (2021-08-16 to 2025-04-08) |
What we could not verify
- TTM GAAP diluted EPS could not be summed from company facts because at least one of the last four quarters (typically Q4) has no standalone tagged EPS; trailing P/E is therefore taken from the labelled secondary source in valuation_label.md.
- Own-history P/E range not yet compiled for this company in the Phase 1 batch run; the label rests on peer-median, growth and PEG evidence.
- Guidance record (each quarter scored against the guidance the company gave the quarter before) is not yet compiled for this company — it is a Phase 2 layer. The earnings strip below therefore uses reported EPS versus a year earlier, which is fully sourced from filings.
The IT factor — the most exciting thing the market is overlooking — is not assessed on an X-Ray page. It belongs to the Deep Dive (Phase 2), where it gets the evidence standard it needs. Leadership-era scoring (the six years split by chief executive) is likewise a Phase 2 layer; this page names the current chief executive only, from a sourced profile.
Sources
- SEC EDGAR submissions — Filing index; company legal name.
https://data.sec.gov/submissions/CIK0001110803.json - SEC EDGAR company facts — Quarterly financial spine: revenue, gross profit, net income, GAAP diluted EPS, operating cash flow, PP&E capex, buybacks, dividends, diluted shares.
https://data.sec.gov/api/xbrl/companyfacts/CIK0001110803.json - Nasdaq official daily history — Daily closes for the company; SPY (assetclass=etf) saved as raw/nasdaq_spy_raw.json over identical dates.
https://api.nasdaq.com/api/quote/ILMN/historical?assetclass=stocks - Valuation multiples and peer figures — stockanalysis.com (SECONDARY, S&P Global data), fetched Oct 28, 2026; see valuation_label.md in the data pack.
Conventions: earliest-filed value per period, as first reported; cash-flow years-to-date differenced quarter by quarter; EPS never differenced; free cash flow = operating cash flow minus plant-and-equipment spending. This page is a dated snapshot — updates are new versions, never silent edits.