Insider Selling: nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) CAO Sells $29,502.35 in Stock

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) CAO James Nias sold 415 shares of nLight stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.09, for a total transaction of $29,502.35. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 98,561 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,006,701.49. The trade was a 0.42% decrease in their position. The sale 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. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards.

James Nias also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Tuesday, May 19th, James Nias sold 1,618 shares of nLight stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.48, for a total transaction of $110,800.64.
• On Monday, May 18th, James Nias sold 1,565 shares of nLight stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.82, for a total transaction of $110,833.30.
• On Friday, May 15th, James Nias sold 1,487 shares of nLight stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.16, for a total transaction of $111,762.92.
• On Thursday, March 12th, James Nias sold 1,808 shares of nLight stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.42, for a total transaction of $116,471.36.
• On Thursday, March 5th, James Nias sold 3,249 shares of nLight stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.96, for a total transaction of $201,308.04.

nLight Stock Up 2.8%

Shares of nLight stock opened at $78.54 on Friday. The company 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. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $68.72 and its 200-day moving average price is $52.06.

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) last released its earnings results 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 company had revenue of $80.18 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $72.14 million. nLight had a negative net margin of 5.08% and a negative return on equity of 4.18%. nLight’s revenue was up 55.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.04) EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that nLight will post -0.17 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.

Institutional Trading of nLight

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in nLight by 22.3% during the 4th quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. now owns 1,225 shares of the company’s stock valued at $46,000 after acquiring an additional 223 shares during the period. Quantinno Capital Management LP lifted its stake in nLight by 0.7% during the 1st quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 41,808 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,384,000 after acquiring an additional 281 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC lifted its stake in nLight by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 13,745 shares of the company’s stock valued at $516,000 after acquiring an additional 358 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in nLight by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 26,574 shares of the company’s stock valued at $997,000 after acquiring an additional 422 shares during the period. Finally, NewEdge Advisors LLC lifted its stake in nLight by 8.0% during the 4th quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 6,003 shares of the company’s stock valued at $225,000 after acquiring an additional 443 shares during the period. 83.88% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have weighed in on LASR shares. Robert W. Baird started coverage on shares of nLight in a research report on Wednesday, March 4th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $95.00 target price on the stock. Needham & Company LLC boosted their target price on shares of nLight from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of nLight from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Wall Street Zen raised shares of nLight from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 9th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of nLight in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, nLight currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price 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.