Wall Street Zen Upgrades nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) to Buy

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Saturday.

Several other analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Zacks Research raised nLight from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 15th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of nLight from $26.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of nLight in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating on shares of nLight in a research note on Friday, August 8th. Finally, Benchmark boosted their price target on shares of nLight from $15.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a “speculative buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 8th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, nLight currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $32.67.

nLight Trading Up 14.7%

Shares of LASR stock opened at $34.16 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a quick ratio of 4.41 and a current ratio of 5.63. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $30.50 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $22.54. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.70 billion, a PE ratio of -38.82 and a beta of 2.48. nLight has a 52-week low of $6.20 and a 52-week high of $36.59.

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported $0.06 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.09) by $0.15. The business had revenue of $61.74 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $55.24 million. nLight had a negative return on equity of 17.18% and a negative net margin of 19.13%.The business’s revenue was up 22.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned ($0.10) earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that nLight will post -1.1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Scott H. Keeney sold 62,507 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.99, for a total value of $1,937,091.93. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,319,038 shares in the company, valued at approximately $71,866,987.62. The trade was a 2.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Joseph John Corso sold 38,284 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.29, for a total transaction of $1,083,054.36. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 273,118 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,726,508.22. The trade was a 12.29% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last three months, insiders sold 374,980 shares of company stock valued at $10,650,501. 6.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in LASR. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of nLight by 2.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,667,332 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,495,000 after acquiring an additional 74,163 shares during the period. King Luther Capital Management Corp purchased a new position in shares of nLight during the 1st quarter worth about $388,000. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC grew its holdings in nLight by 140.4% during the 1st quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC now owns 1,207,580 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,383,000 after purchasing an additional 705,215 shares during the last quarter. Keeley Teton Advisors LLC grew its holdings in nLight by 89.7% during the 1st quarter. Keeley Teton Advisors LLC now owns 127,356 shares of the company’s stock valued at $990,000 after purchasing an additional 60,221 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AIGH Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in nLight in the 2nd quarter worth about $11,810,000. Institutional investors own 83.88% of the company’s stock.

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.