Illumina Stock – The Lack of Growth Is Getting Old

Is it finally time to dump Illumina stock (ILMN)? It’s been a year since we asked that question, and since then we’ve decided that holding lackluster growth companies doesn’t mesh well with the goals of our disruptive tech portfolio. Today, we need to make a “fish or cut bait” decision on whether we continue holding Illumina in the face of stalled growth that continues to go nowhere fast.

The Original Illumina Thesis

DNA is the recipe for life. A company that builds sequencing machines which are used to read DNA is a great pick-and-shovel play on the growth of exciting themes like cancer testing, synthetic biology, gene editing, DNA synthesis, and a host of other exciting technologies. Better yet, investing in a company that has an 80-90% market share and over 70% of revenues coming from consumables is even more desirable.

Illumina fits the bill, and we invested in them well before their growth peaked in 2021. Based on next quarter’s guidance we’ll have seen two years of declining revenues, which points to a business that’s in dire need of a growth strategy. And fresh le