Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Purchases Shares of 14,616 nLight $LASR

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC purchased a new stake in shares of nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund purchased 14,616 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $833,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in LASR. FNY Investment Advisers LLC grew its position in nLight by 6,151.0% during the third quarter. FNY Investment Advisers LLC now owns 41,819 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,239,000 after buying an additional 41,150 shares during the period. Lisanti Capital Growth LLC raised its position in nLight by 23.0% in the fourth quarter. Lisanti Capital Growth LLC now owns 103,978 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,900,000 after acquiring an additional 19,435 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in nLight by 2.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,989,758 shares of the company’s stock worth $187,166,000 after acquiring an additional 125,446 shares during the period. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH purchased a new position in shares of nLight during the 4th quarter worth $788,000. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC purchased a new position in shares of nLight during the 4th quarter worth $776,000. Institutional investors own 83.88% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other nLight news, CEO Scott H. Keeney sold 16,089 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.60, for a total value of $1,200,239.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,185,039 shares in the company, valued at $163,003,909.40. This represents a 0.73% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CFO Joseph John Corso sold 3,817 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.90, for a total value of $278,259.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 169,915 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,386,803.50. The trade was a 2.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 391,038 shares of company stock worth $28,367,419. 3.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

nLight Stock Performance

Shares of LASR stock opened at $69.04 on Tuesday. nLight has a 52-week low of $17.84 and a 52-week high of $86.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.89 billion, a PE ratio of -230.13 and a beta of 2.30. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $70.38 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $60.94.

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.20 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.08 by $0.12. nLight had a negative return on equity of 4.18% and a negative net margin of 5.08%.The business had revenue of $80.18 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $72.14 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned ($0.04) earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 55.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that nLight will post -0.17 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of nLight in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. William Blair initiated coverage on nLight in a research report on Friday, March 27th. They set an “outperform” rating on the stock. Wall Street Zen raised nLight from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, May 9th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on nLight from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 21st. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded nLight from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 6th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $80.94.

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.