State of Wyoming Acquires New Stake in nLight $LASR

State of Wyoming acquired a new stake in nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 10,478 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $729,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of LASR. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership bought a new stake in shares of nLight during the fourth quarter worth $41,315,000. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of nLight by 377.2% during 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 during the period. Marshall Wace LLP grew its holdings in shares of nLight by 537.8% in the third 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 last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its holdings in shares of nLight by 119.4% in the third 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 last quarter. Finally, Tema ETFs LLC grew its holdings in shares of nLight by 84,128.8% in the second quarter. Tema ETFs LLC now owns 394,191 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,444,000 after purchasing an additional 393,723 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.88% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on LASR shares. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price objective on shares of nLight from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Roth Capital restated a “buy” rating and issued a $81.00 target price on shares of nLight in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of nLight from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, July 18th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of nLight in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of nLight from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $87.94.

Insider Transactions at nLight

In other news, CEO Scott H. Keeney sold 46,735 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.48, for a total value of $3,200,412.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,375,519 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $162,675,541.12. This represents a 1.93% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 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, CFO Joseph John Corso sold 35,476 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.40, for a total transaction of $2,497,510.40. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 177,572 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,501,068.80. This represents a 16.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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. Insiders have sold a total of 262,191 shares of company stock worth $18,971,155 in the last three months. Insiders own 3.10% of the company’s stock.

nLight Stock Performance

LASR opened at $52.60 on Monday. nLight has a 12-month low of $24.87 and a 12-month high of $86.95. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $65.54 and its 200-day simple moving average is $65.02. The company has a market capitalization of $3.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -210.40 and a beta of 2.31.

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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 return on equity of 2.83% and a negative net margin of 4.02%.The firm had revenue of $82.59 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $78.58 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.06 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 33.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict that nLight will post -0.2 EPS for the current year.

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.