Scott Keeney Sells 115,252 Shares of nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) Stock

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) CEO Scott Keeney sold 115,252 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $41.32, for a total transaction of $4,762,212.64. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,060,034 shares in the company, valued at approximately $85,120,604.88. The trade was a 5.30% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

nLight Price Performance

LASR opened at $40.37 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $2.33 billion, a P/E ratio of -161.48 and a beta of 2.30. nLight has a 1-year low of $27.22 and a 1-year high of $86.95. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $56.77 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $63.95.

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported $0.15 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 firm had revenue of $82.59 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $78.58 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.06 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 33.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that nLight will post -0.19 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in nLight during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $339,687,000. California State Teachers Retirement System raised its holdings in shares of 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 worth $296,744,000 after acquiring an additional 4,207,248 shares in the last quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership purchased a new stake in shares of nLight during the 4th quarter worth approximately $41,315,000. AWM Investment Company Inc. bought a new position in shares of nLight during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $65,374,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of nLight by 377.2% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,057,281 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,327,000 after purchasing an additional 835,720 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.88% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently commented on LASR shares. Wall Street Zen downgraded nLight from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, July 18th. UBS Group set a $90.00 target price on nLight in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Craig Hallum upped their price target on nLight from $80.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of nLight from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 21st. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of nLight in a research report on Friday, July 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, nLight presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price 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.