nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) Raised to Strong-Buy at Zacks Research

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) was upgraded by analysts at Zacks Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report issued on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

LASR has been the subject of a number of other reports. Wall Street Zen raised nLight from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research 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 note on Thursday, May 21st. Needham & Company LLC increased their price target on nLight from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of nLight in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. Finally, Raymond James Financial reissued a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $100.00 price objective on shares of nLight in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $75.50.

nLight Stock Performance

nLight stock opened at $59.01 on Monday. nLight has a fifty-two week low of $17.84 and a fifty-two week high of $86.95. The company has a market capitalization of $3.33 billion, a P/E ratio of -196.69 and a beta of 2.30. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $70.30 and a 200-day simple moving average of $60.07.

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

Insider Transactions at nLight

In related news, CFO Joseph John Corso sold 3,817 shares of nLight stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.90, for a total transaction of $278,259.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 169,915 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,386,803.50. The trade was a 2.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CAO James Nias sold 940 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.99, for a total value of $73,310.60. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 97,621 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,613,461.79. The trade was a 0.95% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders have sold 391,038 shares of company stock valued at $28,367,419 in the last quarter. 3.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On nLight

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in LASR. FNY Investment Advisers LLC raised 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 worth $1,239,000 after acquiring an additional 41,150 shares during the last quarter. Lisanti Capital Growth LLC grew its position in shares of nLight by 23.0% in the fourth quarter. Lisanti Capital Growth LLC now owns 103,978 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,900,000 after purchasing an additional 19,435 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH purchased a new position in shares of nLight during the 4th quarter worth approximately $788,000. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC acquired a new position in shares of nLight during the 4th quarter worth approximately $776,000. 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.