King Luther Capital Management Corp Decreases Position in nLight $LASR

King Luther Capital Management Corp lessened its holdings in nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) by 65.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 9,000 shares of the company’s stock after selling 17,000 shares during the quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp’s holdings in nLight were worth $338,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in LASR. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in nLight by 377.2% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,057,281 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,327,000 after purchasing an additional 835,720 shares during the period. Portolan Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in nLight in the 3rd quarter worth $22,809,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in nLight by 18.2% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,864,312 shares of the company’s stock worth $144,130,000 after purchasing an additional 747,958 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP raised its position in nLight by 537.8% in the 3rd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 631,486 shares of the company’s stock worth $18,711,000 after purchasing an additional 532,470 shares during the period. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its position in nLight by 119.4% in the 3rd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 755,754 shares of the company’s stock worth $22,393,000 after purchasing an additional 411,360 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.88% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on LASR. Roth Mkm reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $81.00 target price on shares of nLight in a research report on Friday, April 24th. William Blair started coverage on shares of nLight in a research report on Friday, March 27th. They issued an “outperform” rating on the stock. Robert W. Baird started coverage on shares of nLight in a research report on Wednesday, March 4th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $95.00 price objective on the stock. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on shares of nLight from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of nLight from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, nLight currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $69.06.

nLight Trading Down 6.4%

LASR stock opened at $74.12 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $69.94 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $53.71. nLight has a 12-month low of $14.91 and a 12-month high of $86.95. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -247.06 and a beta of 2.34.

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

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Scott H. Keeney sold 41,373 shares of nLight stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.40, for a total transaction of $2,912,659.20. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,334,146 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $164,323,878.40. The trade was a 1.74% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 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 415 shares of nLight stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.09, for a total transaction of $29,502.35. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 98,561 shares in the company, valued at $7,006,701.49. The trade was a 0.42% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 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. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 405,487 shares of company stock valued at $27,566,119. Corporate insiders own 3.10% of the company’s stock.

nLight 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.