Legal & General Group Plc Makes New $3.42 Million Investment in nLight $LASR

Legal & General Group Plc bought a new position in nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund bought 49,142 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,420,000.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of LASR. Osaic Holdings Inc. raised its position in nLight by 1,599.1% in the 2nd 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 last quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. lifted its holdings in nLight by 7,142.9% during the 4th quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 1,014 shares of the company’s stock worth $38,000 after buying an additional 1,000 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in nLight by 155.9% in the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,062 shares of the company’s stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 647 shares during the last quarter. Wexford Capital LP bought a new position in nLight in the 3rd quarter valued at $41,000. Finally, Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd increased its stake in shares of nLight by 7,871.4% in the 4th 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 period. 83.88% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

LASR has been the topic of several research reports. UBS Group set a $90.00 price target on nLight in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on nLight from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 21st. Raymond James Financial restated a “strong-buy” rating and set a $100.00 target price on shares of nLight in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Zacks Research cut shares of nLight from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 4th. Finally, Craig Hallum boosted their price target on shares of nLight from $80.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. One equities 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 company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, nLight presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $87.94.

Insider Buying and Selling at nLight

In other news, Director William Gossman sold 15,000 shares of nLight 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 completion of the sale, the director owned 100,251 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,447,134.36. This trade represents a 13.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Scott Keeney sold 181,750 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $46.88, for a total value of $8,520,440.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,185,039 shares in the company, valued at $102,434,628.32. This represents a 7.68% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 378,500 shares of company stock worth $17,210,102 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 3.10% of the company’s stock.

nLight Trading Down 3.4%

NASDAQ:LASR opened at $40.06 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $2.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -160.24 and a beta of 2.30. nLight has a 1 year low of $27.22 and a 1 year high of $86.95. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $59.28 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $64.42.

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