TacticScaleWhat Illumina Does & How It Makes Money (ILMN)
Updated October 2026 · reflects Illumina's latest reported financials
Maker of DNA sequencing and genetic analysis instruments and consumables. Illumina sells sequencing and array instruments, then earns recurring revenue from the reagents, flow cells, and library-prep kits those instruments consume.
How Illumina makes money
Illumina sells sequencing and array instruments, then earns recurring revenue from the reagents, flow cells, and library-prep kits those instruments consume. It also earns revenue from sequencing, genotyping, and testing services and from product support.
What Illumina does
Illumina, Inc., founded in 1998 and headquartered in San Diego, provides sequencing- and array-based solutions for genetic and genomic analysis. It sells instruments together with the consumables they need, including reagents, flow cells, and library preparation kits. Its whole-genome kits sequence entire genomes, while its targeted kits focus on exomes, specific genes, or RNA. It also offers sequencing, genotyping, noninvasive prenatal testing, and product support services. Its customers include genomic research centers, academic institutions, government labs, hospitals, pharma and biotech firms, molecular diagnostic labs, and consumer genomics companies across the Americas, Europe, Greater China, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East and Africa. It sells directly and through distributors. Illumina works with Labcorp on sequencing applications in oncology and with Integrated DNA Technologies to pair its DRAGEN analysis pipeline with IDT library prep for somatic oncology research. It also has a data partnership focused on pediatric cancer and rare disease.
Products & services
- DNA sequencing instruments
- Sequencing consumables (reagents, flow cells, library prep)
- Whole-genome and targeted resequencing kits
- Genotyping arrays
- DRAGEN secondary analysis
- Noninvasive prenatal testing (NIPT)
What is Illumina worth?
On an owner-earnings DCF, Illumina's most-likely value is about $152 versus a recent price near $278 (45% above fair value). But TacticScale only calls a stock undervalued when the price sits below its conservative no-growth floor (~$72) with a margin of safety — so the honest verdict here is “Fairly priced — no edge.” Fair value earns its keep only at the extremes, not in the wide middle.
Price sits in the normal range — fair value isn't actionable here; it earns its keep only when price drops below the no-growth floor, or runs to roughly double the optimistic case.
Analysis, not advice. Fair value is a margin-of-safety estimate from a deterministic owner-earnings DCF, not a price target or recommendation. See the full breakdown →
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