nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) Stock: Insider Scott Keeney Sells 200,000 Shares

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) CEO Scott Keeney sold 200,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.11, for a total value of $8,422,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 1,760,034 shares in the company, valued at $74,115,031.74. This represents a 10.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

nLight Trading Down 4.2%

Shares of LASR stock opened at $41.25 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $38.67 and a 200 day moving average price of $57.16. nLight has a twelve month low of $28.05 and a twelve month high of $86.95. The company has a market capitalization of $2.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -179.35 and a beta of 2.46.

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On nLight

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. AWM Investment Company Inc. grew its stake in nLight by 10.8% during the third quarter. AWM Investment Company Inc. now owns 1,040,084 shares of the company’s stock worth $40,506,000 after buying an additional 101,073 shares during the period. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC lifted its stake in shares of nLight by 276.5% during the third quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 979 shares of the company’s stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 719 shares in the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of nLight during the third quarter worth about $87,000. Ieq Capital LLC boosted its position in shares of nLight by 10.3% in the third quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 38,250 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,490,000 after buying an additional 3,581 shares during the period. Finally, Stephens Investment Management Group LLC boosted its position in shares of nLight by 125.1% in the third quarter. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC now owns 1,026,867 shares of the company’s stock worth $39,991,000 after buying an additional 570,728 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.88% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the company. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of nLight in a research note on Thursday, October 15th. Northcoast Research raised nLight from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $75.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 7th. Wall Street Zen lowered nLight from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, July 18th. Needham & Company LLC began coverage on nLight in a research note on Tuesday, November 3rd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $50.00 target price for the company. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded nLight from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $82.06.

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.