nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) Director Sells $665,400.00 in Stock

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) Director William Gossman sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.36, for a total transaction of $665,400.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 100,251 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,447,134.36. This represents a 13.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

nLight Trading Up 5.3%

LASR opened at $41.47 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $59.71 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $64.59. nLight has a 1-year low of $27.22 and a 1-year high of $86.95. The company has a market cap of $2.39 billion, a P/E ratio of -165.88 and a beta of 2.30.

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported $0.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.14 by $0.01. nLight had a negative net margin of 4.02% and a negative return on equity of 2.83%. The company had revenue of $82.59 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $78.58 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.06 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 33.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that nLight will post -0.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of LASR. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in nLight during the second quarter worth $339,687,000. California State Teachers Retirement System lifted its stake in nLight by 7,636.1% during the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 4,262,345 shares of the company’s stock valued at $296,744,000 after acquiring an additional 4,207,248 shares in the last quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership bought a new position in nLight during the 4th quarter valued at $41,315,000. AWM Investment Company Inc. purchased a new position in nLight during the 2nd quarter worth $65,374,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in nLight by 377.2% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,057,281 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,327,000 after acquiring an additional 835,720 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.88% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Craig Hallum upped their target price on nLight from $80.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. UBS Group set a $90.00 price target on shares of nLight in a research report on Friday, July 10th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of nLight from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 21st. Needham & Company LLC upped their price objective on shares of nLight from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of nLight from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, July 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $87.94.

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.