Illumina (ILMN) Earnings: Q3 Fiscal 2026 Results

The quarter ended September 27, 2026 and Illumina published the results on October 29, 2026. Revenue and diluted EPS are shown against Q3 fiscal 2025, the same quarter a year earlier, which takes seasonal swings out of the comparison. Illumina reports EPS two ways: GAAP, under the accounting rules every US filer follows, and non-GAAP, excluding tariff refunds, which leaves out items the company considers outside its operating results. The release reconciles the two, and when they diverge, the reconciliation says why.

• Reported Q3 2026 revenue of $1,129 million is net of a $37 million reduction for IEEPA tariff refunds Illumina expects to credit to customers. Cost of revenue includes a $79 million benefit for tariff refunds it expects to recover.
• Illumina acquired SomaLogic in January 2026, so Q3 2026 revenue includes SomaLogic and the year-ago quarter does not.
• Illumina's fiscal year ends on the Sunday closest to December 31. Q3 fiscal 2026 ended September 27, 2026.

Source: Illumina Q3 fiscal 2026 results, October 29, 2026. Also in the Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 27, 2026. Figures as reported; checked against the release on November 10, 2026.

How Illumina splits revenue in its own release, under its own labels, for Q3 fiscal 2026 against Q3 fiscal 2025. Indented lines are parts of the line above them.

• Illumina's Consumables revenue was $841 million in Q3 fiscal 2026, up 3% from $816 million in Q3 fiscal 2025, 74% of total revenue.
• Illumina's Instruments revenue was $105 million in Q3 fiscal 2026, down 5% from $111 million in Q3 fiscal 2025, 9% of total revenue.
• Illumina's Service and other revenue was $183 million in Q3 fiscal 2026, up 17% from $157 million in Q3 fiscal 2025, 16% of total revenue.

Segment lines are the figures writers cite most often, because they show where the growth in a quarter came from. Companies redraw their segments from time to time and restate the prior year to match, so a year-ago figure here can differ from the one printed a year ago. When that has happened, the note above says so.

From the earnings release

Illumina gives this guidance excluding tariff refunds.

In its Q3 fiscal 2026 release, Illumina said:

“Total revenue of $4.64-$4.66 billion versus prior guidance of $4.60-$4.64 billion.”

“Organic revenue growth greater than 4% and ROW organic revenue growth greater than 5%, both unchanged versus prior guidance.”

“Non-GAAP operating margin of 23.6% versus prior guidance of 23.4%-23.6%.”

“Non-GAAP diluted EPS of $5.40-$5.45 versus prior guidance of $5.30-$5.40.”

Source: Illumina Q3 2026 release, Oct 29, 2026.

This is the company's own guidance as of Oct 29, 2026, quoted as given. Walnut does not make forecasts of its own. Analyst estimates for the coming quarters are on the ILMN forecast page.

Revenue and diluted EPS for the last 5 quarters. Each date links to that quarter's release.

GAAP revenue and diluted EPS, each as first reported in that quarter's release.

We do not hold a confirmed date for Illumina's next report. Companies post the date on their investor relations site a few weeks ahead, usually with the time of the conference call.

Each quarter keeps its own page with the figures as reported, so a link to one stays pointed at the same numbers after the next report.

• Q3 fiscal 2026 (this page), reported Oct 29, 2026

Illumina sells DNA sequencing and microarray systems, and most of its revenue comes from the consumables those systems use. In Q3 fiscal 2026 consumables brought in $841 million of the $1,129 million total, instruments $105 million and service and other revenue $183 million. Sequencing accounted for $1,021 million and microarrays $108 million. (Illumina Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Oct 30, 2026)

Illumina said consumables revenue rose on greater demand for high-throughput consumables, supported by continued growth of the NovaSeq X installed base, partly offset by a $30 million reduction for tariff refunds to be credited to customers and lower mid-throughput consumables. Instruments revenue fell, mainly because of a $4 million tariff refund reduction, and was otherwise relatively flat. (Illumina Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Oct 30, 2026)

Service and other revenue at Illumina rose to $183 million from $157 million, mainly from SomaLogic, which it acquired in January 2026, plus higher informatics, genotyping services and extended maintenance contract revenue. Acquisitions added 2.4 points to reported growth of 4.2%, and organic revenue growth was 4.8%. (Illumina Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Oct 30, 2026; Illumina Q3 2026 release, Oct 29, 2026)

By region, United States and Canada was $637 million of Illumina's Q3 fiscal 2026 revenue, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Latin America $347 million, Asia-Pacific $86 million and Greater China $59 million. Illumina reports a rest-of-world organic growth figure that excludes Greater China because of its inclusion on China's Unreliable Entities List; it was 4.7% in the quarter. (Illumina Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Oct 30, 2026; Illumina Q3 2026 release, Oct 29, 2026)

Illumina's GAAP diluted EPS was $1.43 in Q3 fiscal 2026, against $0.98 a year earlier. Its non-GAAP EPS of $1.62 adds back acquisition-related costs ($0.10), ERP-related transformational initiatives ($0.03) and a net strategic investment loss ($0.19), less a $0.13 tax adjustment. Excluding tariff refunds, which added $0.18, non-GAAP EPS was $1.44, the figure Illumina compares with its guidance. (Illumina Q3 2026 release, Oct 29, 2026)

Tariff refunds lifted Illumina's GAAP margins. Gross margin was 73.5%, against 67.6% a year earlier, and the 10-Q says that excluding a net benefit of $42 million from IEEPA tariff refunds gross margin was relatively flat. The effective tax rate was 16.4%, against 31.8% in Q3 fiscal 2025, which had included a one-time $42 million valuation allowance adjustment. (Illumina Q3 2026 release, Oct 29, 2026; Illumina Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Oct 30, 2026)

Illumina's diluted share count was 154 million, the same as a year earlier. It repurchased only 47 thousand shares for $9 million in Q3 fiscal 2026, against $121 million a year earlier; year to date it spent $375 million. Authorizations of $270 million under the 2024 program and $1.5 billion under the 2026 program remained. (Illumina Q3 2026 release, Oct 29, 2026; Illumina Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Oct 30, 2026)

Diluted EPS divides net income by the weighted average number of shares outstanding in the quarter, plus the shares that options and other equity awards could add. Buybacks shrink that count and lift EPS for the same profit; share issuance and stock awards enlarge it.

Illumina raised its fiscal 2026 guidance, which excludes tariff refunds, to total revenue of $4.64 billion to $4.66 billion from $4.60 billion to $4.64 billion, and non-GAAP diluted EPS of $5.40 to $5.45 from $5.30 to $5.40. It now guides non-GAAP operating margin of 23.6% and kept organic growth above 4% and rest-of-world organic growth above 5%. (Illumina Q3 2026 release, Oct 29, 2026)

Illumina's CEO said clinical demand and NovaSeq X placements drove Q3 results above guidance. Illumina does not reconcile its forward non-GAAP figures to GAAP, citing items such as acquisition-related costs, gains and losses from strategic investments and litigation outcomes it cannot predict. (Illumina Q3 2026 release, Oct 29, 2026)

A consensus figure is the average of the models published by the analysts who cover Illumina, collected by a data provider and revised up to the day of the report. A quarter that lands above it says how expectations were set as much as how the business did, and the share price on the day also reflects the guidance and the lines no consensus covers.

The consensus figures on this page are Yahoo Finance's, as pulled on the date shown. Each comes with the number of analysts behind it; the smaller that number, the more one revised estimate can move the average.

The figures below are the ones Illumina's own release and filings put weight on for Q3 fiscal 2026, with the latest reported value for each.

What the quarter means for a holding is a separate question from what it reported. The case for and against owning ILMN is on is ILMN a buy or a sell?, what analysts expect next is on the ILMN forecast, and what the company does is on the Illumina (ILMN) stock page.

Every number on this page can be traced to a document Illumina published. Checking one takes a couple of minutes, and it is worth doing before you quote a figure anywhere.

• The results release is the document linked in the source line above. Companies publish it on their investor relations site at the moment results go out, and it carries the headline tables: revenue, operating income, net income and EPS for the quarter and the year-ago quarter.
• The same release is filed with the SEC as Exhibit 99.1 to a Form 8-K under Item 2.02, usually on the day of the report. The SEC copy does not change after the fact, which makes it the safer thing to link when you cite a number.
• The quarterly report (Form 10-Q) follows within a few weeks and carries the full financial statements, the segment note and management's discussion of what changed. The fourth quarter is covered by the annual report (Form 10-K) instead.
• Restated comparisons are flagged in the notes on this page. When a company redraws its segments or changes how it adjusts EPS, it restates the year-ago column, so the year-ago figure in a new release can differ from the one printed a year ago. This page always uses the comparison in the newer release, because that is the like-for-like one.

A walk-through of every line in a release, with what each one tells you, is in how to read an earnings report.