nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) CAO James Nias Sells 1,808 Shares

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) CAO James Nias sold 1,808 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.42, for a total transaction of $116,471.36. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 93,899 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,048,973.58. The trade was a 1.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website.

James Nias also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Thursday, March 5th, James Nias sold 3,249 shares of nLight stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.96, for a total transaction of $201,308.04.

nLight Stock Down 0.3%

NASDAQ:LASR traded down $0.17 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $62.60. 1,059,219 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,115,248. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $51.32 and its 200 day moving average price is $39.01. The company has a market cap of $3.49 billion, a PE ratio of -133.19 and a beta of 2.27. nLight has a 12-month low of $6.20 and a 12-month high of $69.52.

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The company reported $0.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.11 by $0.03. nLight had a negative net margin of 8.98% and a negative return on equity of 9.28%. The business had revenue of $81.19 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $76.71 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted ($0.30) EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 71.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that nLight will post -1.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on LASR. Stifel Nicolaus started coverage on nLight in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $60.00 price objective on the stock. Raymond James Financial restated a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $75.00 target price on shares of nLight in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price target on nLight from $40.00 to $62.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 27th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of nLight in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. Finally, Zacks Research lowered nLight from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, nLight presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $58.31.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in LASR. Emerald Mutual Fund Advisers Trust purchased a new stake in nLight during the third quarter valued at about $8,626,000. Federated Hermes Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of nLight by 161,736.7% in the 3rd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 79,300 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,350,000 after purchasing an additional 79,251 shares in the last quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of nLight by 48,328.6% in the 2nd quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 13,560 shares of the company’s stock worth $267,000 after purchasing an additional 13,532 shares in the last quarter. Harvey Partners LLC increased its position in shares of nLight by 1.7% during the 2nd quarter. Harvey Partners LLC now owns 2,107,348 shares of the company’s stock valued at $41,473,000 after purchasing an additional 34,348 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bosun Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of nLight during the 2nd quarter valued at about $599,000. 83.88% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About nLight

nLIGHT, Inc designs, develops, manufactures, and sells semiconductor and fiber lasers for industrial, microfabrication, and aerospace and defense applications. The company operates in two segments, Laser Products and Advanced Development. It offers semiconductor lasers with various ranges of power levels, wavelengths, and output fiber sizes; and programmable and serviceable fiber lasers for use in industrial and aerospace and defense applications. The company also provides laser sensors, including light detection and ranging technologies for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance applications; and fiber amplifiers, beam combination, and control systems for use in high-energy laser systems in directed energy applications.