Shares of Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN), the leading provider of DNA sequencing technology to academic and commercial laboratories, contributed to performance in the third quarter. The company reported financial results that beat Wall Street expectations and reiterated guidance for the year. Unfortunately, after quarter end, Illumina pre-announced weaker-than-expected third quarter results and guided down its fourth quarter, and its stock has retreated. While we acknowledge that Illumina may be in a soft patch until we hit an inflection point in the adoption of genetic sequencing for actual patient care, with oncology being the largest opportunity, we continue to believe Illumina has strong moats around its DNA sequencing platform and a long runway for growth. (Neal Kaufman)
From Baron Opportunity Fund third-quarter 2016 commentary.
