nLight (NASDAQ:LASR - Get Free Report) CEO Scott Keeney sold 181,750 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.15, for a total transaction of $8,024,262.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,185,039 shares in the company, valued at $96,469,471.85. This represents a 7.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.
nLight Price Performance
Shares of nLight stock opened at $43.30 on Wednesday. nLight has a 1 year low of $27.22 and a 1 year high of $86.95. The company has a market capitalization of $2.50 billion, a P/E ratio of -173.20 and a beta of 2.31. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $62.85 and a 200 day moving average price of $65.08.
nLight (NASDAQ:LASR - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported $0.15 EPS for the quarter, beating 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%.nLight's quarterly revenue was up 33.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.06 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that nLight will post -0.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Hedge Funds Weigh In On nLight
Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in nLight in the 2nd quarter worth about $339,687,000. California State Teachers Retirement System increased its stake in shares of nLight by 7,636.1% during the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 4,262,345 shares of the company's stock valued at $296,744,000 after acquiring an additional 4,207,248 shares during the last quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership acquired a new position in shares of nLight during the 4th quarter valued at about $41,315,000. AWM Investment Company Inc. purchased a new position in shares of nLight during the 2nd quarter worth about $65,374,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in shares of nLight by 377.2% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,057,281 shares of the company's stock worth $31,327,000 after acquiring an additional 835,720 shares during the last quarter. 83.88% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Analyst Ratings Changes
Several research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Raymond James Financial reissued a "strong-buy" rating and issued a $100.00 target price on shares of nLight in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Craig Hallum lifted their price target on shares of nLight from $80.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of nLight from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 21st. Needham & Company LLC upped their price objective 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. Finally, UBS Group set a $90.00 target price on shares of nLight in a research report on Friday, July 10th. 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 given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $87.94.
Check Out Our Latest Analysis on nLight
About nLight
(
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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.
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