nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) Cut to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note released on Saturday morning.

A number of other analysts have also recently weighed in on LASR. William Blair initiated coverage on shares of nLight in a report on Friday, March 27th. They issued an “outperform” rating on the stock. UBS Group set a $90.00 target price on shares of nLight in a research report on Friday, July 10th. Raymond James Financial restated a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $100.00 price target on shares of nLight in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Craig Hallum lifted their price target on nLight from $80.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on nLight from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 21st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $80.94.

nLight Price Performance

NASDAQ:LASR opened at $68.31 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.85 billion, a P/E ratio of -227.69 and a beta of 2.30. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $69.96 and a 200 day simple moving average of $61.97. nLight has a 12-month low of $18.51 and a 12-month high of $86.95.

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

Insider Activity at nLight

In related news, CEO Scott H. Keeney sold 16,089 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.60, for a total value of $1,200,239.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer 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. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 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 stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.99, for a total transaction of $73,310.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 97,621 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,613,461.79. This represents a 0.95% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders have sold a total of 391,038 shares of company stock worth $28,367,419 over the last ninety days. 3.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Osaic Holdings Inc. lifted its position in nLight by 1,599.1% in the second quarter. Osaic Holdings Inc. now owns 1,835 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 1,727 shares during the period. Sunbelt Securities Inc. boosted its stake in nLight by 7,142.9% during the 4th quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 1,014 shares of the company’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 1,000 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of nLight by 155.9% during the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,062 shares of the company’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 647 shares during the period. Financial Consulate Inc. acquired a new position in shares of nLight during the 4th quarter valued at $41,000. Finally, Wexford Capital LP bought a new stake in shares of nLight in the 3rd quarter worth $41,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.