nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) Trading Up 21.6% – Here’s What Happened

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR)’s stock price rose 21.6% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $67.50 and last traded at $71.3320. 391,842 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 73% from the average daily volume of 1,459,417 shares. The stock had previously closed at $58.68.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on LASR shares. Wall Street Zen raised nLight from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 9th. Zacks Research raised shares of nLight from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 6th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of nLight in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. Needham & Company LLC increased their target price on shares of nLight from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, UBS Group set a $90.00 price target on shares of nLight in a research report on Friday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, nLight currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $80.94.

nLight Price Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $4.06 billion, a P/E ratio of -240.16 and a beta of 2.30. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $70.39 and a 200-day moving average price of $60.58.

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.20 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.08 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $80.18 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.04) earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that nLight will post -0.17 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO James Nias sold 940 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.99, for a total transaction of $73,310.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 97,621 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,613,461.79. This represents a 0.95% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CEO Scott H. Keeney sold 16,089 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.60, for a total transaction of $1,200,239.40. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,185,039 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $163,003,909.40. The trade was a 0.73% 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. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 391,038 shares of company stock worth $28,367,419. Insiders own 3.10% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On nLight

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of LASR. 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 last quarter. Needham Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in nLight by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Needham Investment Management LLC now owns 1,857,740 shares of the company’s stock valued at $69,684,000 after purchasing an additional 65,000 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in nLight by 32.3% during 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 in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 20,043 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Artisan Partners Limited Partnership purchased a new stake in shares of nLight during the 4th quarter valued at $41,315,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.88% of the company’s stock.

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.