Illumina (ILMN) Announces Preliminary Q4 Sales, Issues '22 View Illumina's (ILMN) preliminary fourth-quarter results, latest partnership deals and a robust pipeline of technologies instill investor optimism.

Illumina, Inc. ILMN recently announced preliminary fourth-quarter and full-year 2021 revenues along with 2022 top-line guidance at the 2022 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. The company also discussed its latest partnerships and product pipelines, defining its long-term growth opportunities.

Preliminary Q4 & '21 Results

Illumina reported preliminary consolidated fourth-quarter revenues of around $1.19 billion, up 25% year over year on record revenue growth across instruments and consumables. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for its fourth-quarter revenues is pegged at $1.09 billion.

In addition, the company reported preliminary fiscal year 2021 consolidated revenues of around $4.517 billion, up 39% from 2020. This upside was driven by record revenues in all regions and the highest number of shipments. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Illumina's 2021 revenues is pegged at $4.42 billion, suggesting a 36.4% rise from the year-ago reported figure.

2022 Outlook

Illumina projects consolidated revenues of $5.15-$5.24 billion for 2022, indicating growth in the range of 14-16% year over year as sequencing awareness, demand and adoption expand. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the same is pegged at $4.88 billion, suggesting a 10.5% rise from the year-ago reported figure.

New Collaboration Deals

Illumina has entered into partnership agreements with Agendia and Boehringer Ingelheim to advance the development of precision diagnosis and treatment medicines for advanced cancer patients. The company also announced a collaboration with Optum -- a leading health services innovation company -- to bolster the adoption of genomics into clinical practice. Both Illumina and Optum are conducting studies to identify, validate and demonstrate the efficacy of genomics-based testing through the newly-developed Optum Evidence Engine.

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Illumina has entered into another collaboration deal with SomaLogic to co-develop an end-to-end solution utilizing the largest protein target set of more than 10,000 proteins and the high-throughput capabilities of its existing and future next-generation sequencing platforms. Meanwhile, the company's newly-established partnership with Nashville Biosciences -- a wholly-owned subsidiary of Vanderbilt University Medical Center -- is anticipated to drive enhanced medicine development.

It is worth noting that these innovative partnerships position Illumina to advance genomic uptake and enhance human health globally.

Update on GRAIL

Post the acquisition of GRAIL on Aug 18, 2021, Illumina has two reportable segments-- Core Illumina and GRAIL. In 2021, GRAIL launched Galleri, the first multi-cancer early detection blood test to be clinically validated in a screening population.

At present, GRAIL is collaborating with multiple healthcare partners to ensure the rapid and widespread availability of this test. With eight clinical studies currently underway or planned, GRAIL's comprehensive evidence generation for Galleri is largely regarded as one the largest clinical genomics programs ever conducted.

GRAIL has also announced a new collaboration with Premier's PINC AI to enhance its clinical decision support technology. This collaboration will aid clinicians in identifying patients with an elevated risk of cancer who are likely to benefit from the Galleri test.

Robust Pipeline Hold Potential

Building on its more than 20-year track record of innovation, Illumina is currently focused on developing breakthrough chemistry, codenamed Chemistry X, that delivers two times faster cycle times, two times longer readings and three times greater accuracy. Per management, the breakthrough Chemistry X will serve as the foundation for all future platforms.

Illumina is set to launch new bioinformatics technology on its DRAGEN platform in the first quarter, which can support DNA, RNA, methylation and a Bayesian theory approach to machine learning allowing for the most rapid, cost-effective and accurate analysis of any platform.

Furthermore, the company unveiled novel patented technologies for a highly accurate and cost-effective long read workflow, codenamed Infinity, that will produce contiguous data up to 10Kb in length to address the genome's final edge cases. Management believes that the Infinity long-read technology will enable researchers to boost access to the remaining 5% of genic regions.

Share Price Performance

The stock has outperformed its industry in the past year. It has gained 0.3% compared with the industry's 31.3% fall.

Zacks Rank and Key Picks

Currently, Illumina carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

A few better-ranked stocks in the broader medical space that investors can consider are AMN Healthcare Services, Inc. AMN, Apollo Endosurgery, Inc. APEN and Patterson Companies, Inc. PDCO.

AMN Healthcare, carrying a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), has a long-term earnings growth rate of 16.2%. The company's earnings surpassed estimates in the trailing four quarters, delivering a surprise of 19.5%, on average.

AMN Healthcare has outperformed its industry over the past year. AMN has gained 48.3% against the 57.3% industry decline.

Apollo Endosurgery, carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), has a long-term earnings growth rate of 7%. The company"s earnings surpassed estimates in the trailing four quarters, delivering a surprise of 25.6%, on average. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Apollo Endosurgery has outperformed its industry in the past year. APEN has gained 103.3% versus the industry's 1% fall.

Patterson Companies, sporting a Zacks Rank #2, has a long-term earnings growth rate of 9.9%. The company surpassed earnings estimates in three of the trailing four quarters and missed in one, delivering an average surprise of 3.7%.

Patterson Companies has underperformed its industry over the past year. PDCO has declined 11.1% versus the industry's 4.9% rise.

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