A lead plaintiff is being sought by Lundin Law PC in the lawsuit that the law firm has filed against Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN). Investors who bought shares of Illumina between July 26, 2016, and October 10, 2016, have to contact the law firm before the February 15, 2017, deadline on the motion of the lead plaintiff passes.  The suit was filed in the US District Court for California’s Southern District. Francis deSouza, Illumina’s president and chief executive officer and Marc Stapley, Illumina’s executive vice president, chief administrative officer, and chief financial officer were named as the defendants.

Passive class

In the class action lawsuit that has been brought against Illumina, there has been no certification of a class yet. Only after certification will representation by an attorney is allowed. Affected investors can decide not to take any action in which case they will remain passive class members.

The suit alleges that in the course of the class period, statements that were misleading and materially false were made by Illumina with regards to the health, prospects, and state of the business. According to the suit, Illumina made misleading or false statements and failed to divulge that the company was experiencing a significant decline in the sales of sequencing instruments, a decline which negatively impacted the revenues.

Inaccurate projections

The lawsuit further alleges that the company lacked a way to discern trends that would have influenced the business’ financial result and thereby leading to the conclusion that the revenue guidance the company offered was exaggerated and unreliable. Consequently, the only logical conclusion to this was that statements from Illumina concerning the business, prospects, and operations of the company were misleading and false. They were also lacking in a reasonable basis.

In Illumina’s second quarter earnings that were released on July 26, 2016, the company projected that preliminary revenues for the quarter would be more than $620 million in quarter three. Actual Q3 results that were released on October 10, 2016, showed the revenue guidance had been off the mark by over $18 million. By the end of that trading day, the share price of Illumina fell by around 25%.

In Thursday’s trading, Illumina, Inc rose by 0.62% to close the day at $128.72 a share.