nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) Stock Rating Raised to Strong-Buy at Zacks Research

Zacks Research upgraded shares of nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating in a research note published on Tuesday morning,Zacks reports.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Northcoast Research raised shares of nLight from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $75.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 7th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of nLight from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, July 18th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of nLight in a research note on Thursday, October 15th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC began coverage on shares of nLight in a research note on Tuesday, November 3rd. They set a “buy” rating and a $50.00 target price for the company. Two investment 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 company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, nLight currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $82.06.

nLight Stock Performance

Shares of nLight stock opened at $44.48 on Tuesday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $38.60 and a 200-day simple moving average of $57.18. nLight has a one year low of $28.05 and a one year high of $86.95. The company has a market cap of $2.59 billion, a PE ratio of -193.39 and a beta of 2.46.

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 5th. The company reported $0.16 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.05 by $0.11. nLight had a negative net margin of 4.02% and a negative return on equity of 1.03%. The firm had revenue of $73.76 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $68.16 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.08 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 10.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that nLight will post -0.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at nLight

In other nLight news, Director William Gossman sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.36, for a total value of $665,400.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 100,251 shares in the company, valued at $4,447,134.36. This represents a 13.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Scott H. Keeney sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.01, for a total transaction of $4,101,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,960,034 shares in the company, valued at $80,380,994.34. This represents a 4.85% 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. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 621,149 shares of company stock worth $27,153,700. 3.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of nLight

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of LASR. Advisors Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in nLight during the 3rd quarter worth $87,000. Ieq Capital LLC lifted its position in nLight by 10.3% in the third quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 38,250 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,490,000 after acquiring an additional 3,581 shares during the last quarter. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC boosted its stake in nLight by 125.1% in the third quarter. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC now owns 1,026,867 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,991,000 after acquiring an additional 570,728 shares in the last quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in nLight by 41.2% in the third quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC now owns 15,060 shares of the company’s stock valued at $587,000 after acquiring an additional 4,398 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cibc World Market Inc. boosted its stake in nLight by 75.6% in the third quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. now owns 5,505 shares of the company’s stock valued at $214,000 after acquiring an additional 2,370 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.88% of the company’s stock.

About nLight

nLIGHT, Inc. develops and manufactures lasers and related photonics products for industrial, aerospace and defense applications. Its offerings include high-power semiconductor lasers, fiber lasers and ultrafast lasers, along with components and systems used to deliver and control laser energy. The company’s products support applications such as materials processing and other industrial tasks, as well as defense technologies including directed-energy systems. nLIGHT serves customers in the United States and international markets.