Brown Advisory Global Leaders Strategy Exited Illumina (ILMN) in Q2. Here’s Why

Brown Advisory, an investment management company, released its “Brown Advisory Global Leaders Strategy” second-quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The strategy focused on delivering strong long-term performance by investing in a focused portfolio of companies that solve customer problems and provide good returns for shareholders. The strategy outperformed its benchmark during the quarter, driven by investment selection within Information Technology and Industrials. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2025.

In its second-quarter 2025 investor letter, Brown Advisory Global Leaders Strategy highlighted stocks such as Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN). Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) is a leading supplier of sequencing- and array-based solutions for genetic and genomic analysis. The one-month return of Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) was 3.10%, and its shares lost 21.02% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On September 19, 2025, Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) stock closed at $102.75 per share, with a market capitalization of $15.793 billion.

Brown Advisory Global Leaders Strategy stated the following regarding Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) in its second quarter 2025 investor letter:

“We exited Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) in May. We wrote about Illumina, the global leader in genome sequencing, earlier this year. The company had undergone a drawdown review and at that time we highlighted the highly fluid environment with the thesis being impacted by a number of changes to the regulatory environment with National Institute of Health budgets being cut in the U.S., a complete import ban on sales into China as well as an increase in new entrant competitive supply-side risks. It is incredibly rare for us to see this trifecta of risks emanating in such a short space of time, so we exited.”

Illumina, Inc. (ILMN): Among Small-Cap Healthcare Stocks Hedge Funds is Buying

Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. According to our database, 54 hedge fund portfolios held Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) at the end of the second quarter, down from 60 in the previous quarter. In the second quarter, Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) generated approximately $1.06 billion in revenue, reaching the upper end of its guidance range, despite experiencing a 3% decline compared to Q2 2024. While we acknowledge the risk and 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 doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) and that has 10,000% upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.

In another article, we covered Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) and shared Baron Global Advantage Fund’s views on the company. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q2 2025 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.

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