Illumina's Double Play (Revise)

Shares in Illumina (ILMN), a company that makes chips and tools for testing genetic variations, are up 5% to $36.70 on 14 million shares.

The company made two announcements. One is that it will sell $350 million in convertible notes and buyback $202 million in stock. The shares convert at an above market price.

Illumina also said findings in Type 2 diabetes research were were conducted using the company’s HumanHap300 and Human-1 BeadChips.. According to the company: "These results were published in the journal, Nature, and are believed to explain up to 70 percent of the genetic background of type-2 diabetes".

Illumina has been in a war with larger genetic tools company Affymetrix (AFFX). And, the smaller company has been handily besting its larger rival. Over the last year, Illumina’s stock is up over 60% while Affymetrix is down about 20%. Revenue and profit have been falling at AFFX, and, despite a recent brokerage upgrade by Caris, no one seems to want to go near the stock.

It would appear that Illumina has trumped the competition again.

Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at [email protected]. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.