nLight $LASR Shares Acquired by Hillsdale Investment Management Inc.

Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. increased its position in nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) by 40,932.9% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 114,892 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 114,612 shares during the period. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in nLight were worth $6,551,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. FNY Investment Advisers LLC increased 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 buying an additional 41,150 shares during the period. Lisanti Capital Growth LLC boosted its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 19,435 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of nLight by 2.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,989,758 shares of the company’s stock valued at $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 fourth quarter worth approximately $788,000. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC purchased a new position in shares of nLight during the fourth quarter worth approximately $776,000. 83.88% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at nLight

In other news, CFO Joseph John Corso sold 3,817 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.90, for a total transaction of $278,259.30. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 169,915 shares in the company, valued at $12,386,803.50. The trade was a 2.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available 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, CEO Scott H. Keeney sold 16,089 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.60, for a total transaction of $1,200,239.40. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,185,039 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $163,003,909.40. This represents a 0.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 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. In the last quarter, insiders sold 391,038 shares of company stock worth $28,367,419. Company insiders own 3.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently commented on LASR. Zacks Research upgraded shares of nLight from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 6th. Roth Capital restated a “buy” rating and issued a $81.00 price objective on shares of nLight in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of nLight from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, May 9th. UBS Group set a $90.00 target price on shares of nLight in a report on Friday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of nLight from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 21st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $80.94.

nLight Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ LASR opened at $71.48 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $70.47 and a 200 day moving average price of $61.16. nLight has a 1-year low of $18.51 and a 1-year high of $86.95. The company has a market cap of $4.03 billion, a PE ratio of -238.26 and a beta of 2.30.

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