nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) CEO Scott Keeney Sells 100,000 Shares of Stock

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) CEO Scott 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 value of $4,101,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,960,034 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $80,380,994.34. This trade represents a 4.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

nLight Stock Performance

Shares of LASR stock traded down $1.70 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $39.29. 770,272 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,443,249. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $57.70 and its 200 day simple moving average is $64.24. The company has a market capitalization of $2.27 billion, a P/E ratio of -157.16 and a beta of 2.30. nLight has a fifty-two week low of $27.22 and a fifty-two week high of $86.95.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $0.14 by $0.01. nLight had a negative net margin of 4.02% and a negative return on equity of 2.83%. The firm had revenue of $82.59 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $78.58 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.06 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 33.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that nLight will post -0.19 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on LASR. UBS Group set a $90.00 target price on shares of nLight in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on nLight from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 21st. Zacks Research cut nLight from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 4th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of nLight in a research note on Friday, July 17th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC increased their target price on nLight from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $87.94.

Institutional Trading of nLight

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of LASR. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in nLight during the second quarter worth about $339,687,000. California State Teachers Retirement System boosted 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 acquiring an additional 4,207,248 shares during the period. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership acquired a new position in nLight in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $41,315,000. AWM Investment Company Inc. bought a new position in shares of nLight during the second quarter valued at approximately $65,374,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of nLight by 377.2% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,057,281 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,327,000 after purchasing an additional 835,720 shares during the last quarter. 83.88% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.