Insider Selling: nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) CAO Sells 1,565 Shares of Stock

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) CAO James Nias sold 1,565 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.82, for a total value of $110,833.30. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 100,594 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,124,067.08. This represents a 1.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards.

James Nias also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Friday, May 15th, James Nias sold 1,487 shares of nLight stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.16, for a total value of $111,762.92.
• On Thursday, March 12th, James Nias sold 1,808 shares of nLight stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.42, for a total value of $116,471.36.
• On Thursday, March 5th, James Nias sold 3,249 shares of nLight stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.96, for a total value of $201,308.04.

nLight Price Performance

Shares of LASR stock traded down $1.34 on Tuesday, hitting $69.49. 997,065 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,332,100. The company has a market capitalization of $3.92 billion, a PE ratio of -231.63 and a beta of 2.34. nLight has a 1-year low of $12.45 and a 1-year high of $86.95. The company’s fifty day moving average is $68.02 and its 200 day moving average is $51.29.

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.08 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $80.18 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $72.14 million. nLight had a negative return on equity of 4.18% and a negative net margin of 5.08%.The business’s revenue was up 55.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted ($0.04) EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that nLight will post -0.39 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On nLight

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in nLight by 2.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,989,758 shares of the company’s stock worth $187,166,000 after buying an additional 125,446 shares during the period. Needham Investment Management LLC increased its position in nLight by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Needham Investment Management LLC now owns 1,857,740 shares of the company’s stock worth $69,684,000 after buying an additional 65,000 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in nLight by 32.3% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,399,229 shares of the company’s stock worth $52,485,000 after buying an additional 341,948 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in nLight by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,234,696 shares of the company’s stock worth $46,320,000 after buying an additional 20,043 shares during the period. Finally, Artisan Partners Limited Partnership acquired a new stake in nLight in the fourth quarter worth $41,315,000. 83.88% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on LASR shares. William Blair started coverage on nLight in a research report on Friday, March 27th. They set an “outperform” rating on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and set a $75.00 price target (up from $68.00) on shares of nLight in a research report on Friday, April 17th. Roth Mkm reissued a “buy” rating and set a $81.00 price target on shares of nLight in a research report on Friday, April 24th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of nLight in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. Finally, Raymond James Financial reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $100.00 target price on shares of nLight in a research report on Friday, May 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $67.81.

About nLight

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.