Insider Selling: nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) CEO Sells $2,912,659.20 in Stock

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) CEO Scott Keeney sold 41,373 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.40, for a total value of $2,912,659.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,334,146 shares in the company, valued at approximately $164,323,878.40. This represents a 1.74% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, 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.

nLight Stock Up 2.8%

Shares of NASDAQ LASR opened at $78.54 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $68.72 and its 200 day moving average price is $52.06. The firm has a market cap of $4.43 billion, a P/E ratio of -261.79 and a beta of 2.34. nLight has a 52 week low of $13.45 and a 52 week high of $86.95.

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.20 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 quarter in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.04) earnings per share. nLight’s revenue for the quarter was up 55.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that nLight will post -0.17 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bank of America Corp DE raised its stake in nLight by 32.9% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 235,398 shares of the company’s stock valued at $13,422,000 after purchasing an additional 58,272 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its stake in nLight by 12.1% in the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 21,941 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,251,000 after purchasing an additional 2,361 shares during the last quarter. Amundi acquired a new position in nLight in the 1st quarter valued at $1,023,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in nLight by 67.9% in the 1st quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,783 shares of the company’s stock valued at $102,000 after purchasing an additional 721 shares during the last quarter. Finally, California State Teachers Retirement System raised its stake in nLight by 25.0% in the 1st quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 55,097 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,142,000 after purchasing an additional 11,012 shares during the last quarter. 83.88% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key nLight News

Here are the key news stories impacting nLight this week:

• Positive Sentiment: nLight’s recent quarterly results beat expectations, with EPS of $0.20 versus $0.08 expected and revenue of $80.18 million versus $72.14 million expected. Revenue also rose 55.2% year over year, reinforcing the view that business momentum remains strong.
• Positive Sentiment: Research coverage has stayed constructive, including reports highlighting nLight as a strong momentum stock and multiple bullish analyst ratings, which can help support investor confidence in LASR.
• Neutral Sentiment: Several executives, including CEO Scott H. Keeney, CFO Joseph John Corso, and CAO James Nias, sold shares recently. The filings say the trades were made under pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plans and to cover tax withholding on vested equity awards, which makes them less concerning than discretionary selling.
• Negative Sentiment: Even though the insider sales appear routine, the volume of selling from top executives may still weigh on sentiment in the short term as some investors interpret it as profit-taking after a sharp run-up in the share price.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

LASR has been the topic of several recent research reports. Roth Mkm restated a “buy” rating and issued a $81.00 price objective on shares of nLight in a research report on Friday, April 24th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on nLight from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Wall Street Zen upgraded nLight from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 9th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of nLight in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. Finally, Needham & Company LLC upped their price objective on nLight from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, nLight currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $69.06.

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.