Illumina Falls 20% After Preliminary Q1 Results 'Fell Short Of Expectations'

Shares of Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ: ILMN) plunged nearly 20 percent Tuesday morning after the company reported disappointing preliminary first quarter results on Monday.

Illumina said it expects to record revenue of $572 million in the first quarter. Even though the company's guidance represents a 6 percent increase year-over-year, it fell short of the $$596.33 million Wall Street analysts were expecting.

Illumina will report its first quarter results on May 3 and will provide an updated earnings per share guidance at that time.

"Our first quarter results fell short of expectations largely due to lower than expected sales of HiSeq 2500, 3000 and 4000 instruments. Despite this slow start in Q1, we anticipate that our Americas and Asia Pacific regions will meet our expectations for the full year, but that Europe will underperform. As a result, we now project approximately 12% revenue growth for fiscal 2016," stated Jay Flatley, Chairman and CEO. "Given the disappointing outlook in Europe, we have made management changes in the region and plan to implement a program of actions to achieve our goal of delivering the robust growth we believe the market can support."

A conference call to discuss the company's preliminary results was held on Monday and can be accessed through the company's investor relations website.