Some Illumina customers will soon see credits to their account for tariff charges passed onto them by the company from February 2025 to February 2026.
Now that it has received refunds for those tariffs from the US government, Illumina will return $37 million to customers. The company also reported on Oct. 29 a $79 million tariff refund-related benefit as a reduction to its cost of revenue as part of its third quarter financial results.
How much Illumina received in tariff refunds wasn’t clear. The company did not respond directly to a list of questions sent by Ion Genomics. In an email, an Illumina spokesperson claimed that the company had “[absorbed] a portion of the costs ourselves rather than passing them through in full” to customers.
In the quarter, Illumina reported total revenue of $1.13 billion, up 4 percent year over year from $1.08 billion, driven by clinical demand and NovaSeq X placements. Third-quarter revenue was short of the consensus Wall Street estimate of $1.15 billion; however, excluding tariff refunds, revenue was $1.17 billion.
Product revenue grew 2 percent year over year to $946 million from $927 million. Service and other revenue rose 17 percent to $183 million from $157 million.
In the quarter, Illumina placed more than 80 NovaSeq X instruments, CEO Jacob Thaysen said on a conference call with investors following the release of results.
Illumina’s net income for the quarter was $220 million, or $1.43 per share, compared with net income of $150 million, or $.98 per share, a year ago. Adjusted EPS, which excludes the tariff refunds, was $1.44 per share, beating the consensus Wall Street estimate of $1.36.
R&D expenses in Q3 were $244 million, up 7 percent from $229 million a year ago. SG&A expenses were $281 million, up 1 percent from $277 million.
Illumina ended the quarter with $1.35 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments.
Illumina raised its full-year 2026 revenue guidance to $4.64 billion to $4.66 billion, up from a prior range of $4.60 billion to $4.64 billion. Both figures exclude tariff refunds. The company also raised its full-year adjusted EPS guidance to $5.40 to $5.45, up from $5.30 to $5.40.
