nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) CFO Sells 3,524 Shares of Stock

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) CFO Joseph Corso sold 3,524 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $41.49, for a total value of $146,210.76. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 162,200 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,729,678. This trade represents a 2.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing 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. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards.

Joseph John Corso also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Thursday, September 3rd, Joseph Corso sold 4,191 shares of nLight stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.69, for a total value of $170,531.79.

nLight Trading Up 3.7%

LASR stock traded up $1.47 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $41.53. The company had a trading volume of 1,549,626 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,449,755. The stock has a market cap of $2.40 billion, a PE ratio of -166.12 and a beta of 2.30. The business has a 50-day moving average of $58.78 and a 200-day moving average of $64.43. nLight has a one year low of $27.22 and a one year high of $86.95.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on LASR shares. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of nLight from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 21st. Needham & Company LLC increased their price target on nLight from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Craig Hallum lifted their price objective on nLight from $80.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. Zacks Research downgraded nLight from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 4th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of nLight in a research report on Friday, July 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $87.94.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in nLight during the second quarter worth $339,687,000. California State Teachers Retirement System increased its stake in 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. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership acquired a new position in shares of nLight during the fourth quarter valued at about $41,315,000. AWM Investment Company Inc. acquired a new position in shares of nLight during the second quarter valued at about $65,374,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in shares of nLight by 377.2% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,057,281 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,327,000 after purchasing an additional 835,720 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.88% of the company’s stock.

nLight Company Profile

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.