Is Illumina, Inc. (ILMN) A Good Stock To Buy?

Since Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) has experienced a decline in interest from hedge fund managers, it’s easy to see that there lies a certain “tier” of fund managers that decided to sell off their full holdings by the end of the third quarter. Interestingly, Christopher James’s Partner Fund Management dumped the largest stake of the “upper crust” of funds monitored by Insider Monkey, totaling an estimated $53.2 million in stock, and Anand Parekh’s Alyeska Investment Group was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $46.7 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 2 funds by the end of the third quarter.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN). We will take a look at Archer Daniels Midland Company (NYSE:ADM), Cardinal Health, Inc. (NYSE:CAH), Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV), and AFLAC Incorporated (NYSE:AFL). All of these stocks’ market caps match ILMN’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 39 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1.23 billion. That figure was $2.25 billion in ILMN’s case. Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) is the most popular stock in this table, while AFLAC Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) is the least popular one with only 28 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks, Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) is more popular among hedge funds. Considering that hedge funds are fond of this stock in relation to its market cap peers, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and potentially include it in your portfolio.