Scott Keeney Sells 41,373 Shares of nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) Stock

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) CEO Scott Keeney sold 41,373 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $78.64, for a total value of $3,253,572.72. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,251,400 shares in the company, valued at approximately $177,050,096. This trade represents a 1.80% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

nLight Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ LASR traded down $3.54 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $70.58. 1,143,088 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,333,947. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -235.26 and a beta of 2.31. nLight has a 52 week low of $15.05 and a 52 week high of $86.95. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $69.93 and its 200 day simple moving average is $54.09.

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.08 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $80.18 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $72.14 million. nLight had a negative return on equity of 4.18% and a negative net margin of 5.08%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 55.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted ($0.04) earnings per share. Research analysts predict that nLight will post -0.17 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on LASR shares. Robert W. Baird started coverage on nLight in a research report on Wednesday, March 4th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $95.00 price target on the stock. Roth Mkm reissued a “buy” rating and set a $81.00 price target on shares of nLight in a research report on Friday, April 24th. William Blair began coverage on nLight in a report on Friday, March 27th. They issued an “outperform” rating on the stock. Needham & Company LLC raised their target price on nLight from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of nLight in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, nLight presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $69.06.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On nLight

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Federated Hermes Inc. raised its position in nLight by 161,736.7% during 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 during the last quarter. FNY Investment Advisers LLC raised its position in nLight by 6,151.0% during the 3rd quarter. FNY Investment Advisers LLC now owns 41,819 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,239,000 after purchasing an additional 41,150 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in nLight by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,989,758 shares of the company’s stock worth $187,166,000 after purchasing an additional 125,446 shares during the last quarter. Lisanti Capital Growth LLC raised its position in nLight by 23.0% during the 4th quarter. Lisanti Capital Growth LLC now owns 103,978 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,900,000 after purchasing an additional 19,435 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH bought a new position in nLight during the 4th quarter worth $788,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.88% of the company’s stock.

nLight Company Profile

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.