nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) Director William Gossman Sells 15,000 Shares of Stock

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) Director William Gossman sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.36, for a total value of $665,400.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 100,251 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,447,134.36. This represents a 13.02% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

nLight Stock Performance

Shares of LASR stock opened at $40.32 on Wednesday. nLight has a fifty-two week low of $27.22 and a fifty-two week high of $86.95. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $60.62 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $64.76. The company has a market cap of $2.33 billion, a P/E ratio of -161.28 and a beta of 2.31.

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported $0.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.14 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $82.59 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $78.58 million. nLight had a negative return on equity of 2.83% and a negative net margin of 4.02%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 33.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.06 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that nLight will post -0.19 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have weighed in on LASR. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price target on shares of nLight from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of nLight in a research report on Friday, July 17th. UBS Group set a $90.00 target price on nLight in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Zacks Research downgraded nLight from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 4th. Finally, Raymond James Financial reissued a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $100.00 price objective on shares of nLight in a research note on Friday, May 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, nLight presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $87.94.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On nLight

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in nLight by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,989,758 shares of the company’s stock worth $187,166,000 after purchasing an additional 125,446 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in shares of nLight in the second quarter valued at approximately $339,687,000. California State Teachers Retirement System lifted its holdings in shares of nLight by 7,636.1% in the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 4,262,345 shares of the company’s stock valued at $296,744,000 after purchasing an additional 4,207,248 shares in the last quarter. Needham Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of nLight by 3.6% in the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in shares of nLight by 32.3% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,399,229 shares of the company’s stock valued at $52,485,000 after buying an additional 341,948 shares during the last quarter. 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.