William Blair Begins Coverage on nLight (NASDAQ:LASR)

William Blair assumed coverage on shares of nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday. The firm set an “outperform” rating on the stock.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. Needham & Company LLC raised their price objective on nLight from $48.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Roth Mkm boosted their target price on shares of nLight from $44.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Canaccord Genuity Group raised shares of nLight to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 17th. Zacks Research cut shares of nLight from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 9th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of nLight from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, nLight currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $58.31.

nLight Stock Down 11.0%

Shares of NASDAQ:LASR opened at $63.86 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $56.47 and a 200 day moving average of $41.52. The company has a market capitalization of $3.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -135.87 and a beta of 2.27. nLight has a 52 week low of $6.20 and a 52 week high of $74.10.

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The company reported $0.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.11 by $0.03. nLight had a negative return on equity of 9.28% and a negative net margin of 8.98%.The business had revenue of $81.19 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $76.71 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned ($0.30) EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 71.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that nLight will post -1.1 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Scott H. Keeney sold 19,096 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.80, for a total value of $1,122,844.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,210,029 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $129,949,705.20. This trade represents a 0.86% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO James Nias sold 1,808 shares of nLight stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.42, for a total transaction of $116,471.36. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 93,899 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,048,973.58. This trade represents a 1.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 162,528 shares of company stock worth $9,223,597 in the last three months. Insiders own 4.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Hsbc Holdings PLC purchased a new position in shares of nLight in the fourth quarter worth $254,000. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of nLight during the fourth quarter valued at $144,000. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd grew its holdings in shares of nLight by 7,871.4% during the fourth quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 1,116 shares of the company’s stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 1,102 shares during the last quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. increased its position in shares of nLight by 7,142.9% in the 4th quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 1,014 shares of the company’s stock valued at $38,000 after acquiring an additional 1,000 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its position in shares of nLight by 32.3% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,399,229 shares of the company’s stock valued at $52,485,000 after acquiring an additional 341,948 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.88% of the company’s stock.

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.