nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) Sets New 52-Week High on Analyst Upgrade

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Friday after Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on the stock from $26.00 to $40.00. Stifel Nicolaus currently has a buy rating on the stock. nLight traded as high as $36.59 and last traded at $34.4560, with a volume of 347955 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $29.79.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on LASR. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price objective on nLight from $27.50 to $33.50 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 15th. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price target on nLight from $32.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Benchmark upped their price objective on shares of nLight from $15.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “speculative buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 8th. Zacks Research raised shares of nLight from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 15th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of nLight in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $31.58.

Insider Activity at nLight

In other nLight news, CFO Joseph John Corso sold 38,284 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.29, for a total value of $1,083,054.36. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 273,118 shares in the company, valued at $7,726,508.22. The trade was a 12.29% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Scott H. Keeney sold 62,507 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.99, for a total transaction of $1,937,091.93. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,319,038 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $71,866,987.62. The trade was a 2.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 374,980 shares of company stock worth $10,650,501 in the last 90 days. 4.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of nLight

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of LASR. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in shares of nLight by 4.8% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 319,314 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,461,000 after acquiring an additional 14,724 shares in the last quarter. Baader Bank Aktiengesellschaft bought a new stake in shares of nLight during the third quarter valued at approximately $436,000. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. acquired a new position in nLight during the 3rd quarter worth $241,000. Lisanti Capital Growth LLC increased its stake in nLight by 4.0% during the 3rd quarter. Lisanti Capital Growth LLC now owns 84,543 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,505,000 after buying an additional 3,213 shares during the period. Finally, AlphaQuest LLC boosted its stake in nLight by 43.9% during the third quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 17,149 shares of the company’s stock valued at $508,000 after buying an additional 5,230 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.88% of the company’s stock.

nLight Price Performance

The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $30.39 and a 200-day simple moving average of $22.14. The company has a market cap of $1.71 billion, a P/E ratio of -35.73 and a beta of 2.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a current ratio of 5.63 and a quick ratio of 4.41.

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported $0.06 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.09) by $0.15. The business had revenue of $61.74 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $55.24 million. nLight had a negative net margin of 21.66% and a negative return on equity of 19.12%. The firm’s revenue was up 22.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned ($0.10) earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that nLight will post -1.1 earnings per share for the current year.

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.