IPG Photonics (NASDAQ:IPGP) PT Lowered to $68.00

IPG Photonics (NASDAQ:IPGP) had its target price cut by equities researchers at Citigroup from $74.00 to $68.00 in a report released on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “sell” rating on the semiconductor company’s stock. Citigroup’s price objective points to a potential downside of 21.62% from the company’s current price.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently commented on IPGP. StockNews.com cut IPG Photonics from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 17th. Benchmark lowered their price target on shares of IPG Photonics from $116.00 to $106.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Seaport Res Ptn reissued a “buy” rating on shares of IPG Photonics in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of IPG Photonics in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on shares of IPG Photonics from $130.00 to $115.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $110.40.

IPG Photonics Stock Performance

IPGP traded up $0.06 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $86.76. The stock had a trading volume of 253,550 shares, compared to its average volume of 230,527. IPG Photonics has a 1 year low of $80.33 and a 1 year high of $141.85. The business has a fifty day moving average of $87.69 and a 200 day moving average of $93.97. The company has a market cap of $3.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 19.80 and a beta of 1.17.

IPG Photonics (NASDAQ:IPGP) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The semiconductor company reported $0.52 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $252.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $255.53 million. IPG Photonics had a net margin of 15.34% and a return on equity of 7.67%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 27.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.26 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that IPG Photonics will post 2.81 earnings per share for the current year.

IPG Photonics announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, February 13th that authorizes the company to buyback $300.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the semiconductor company to reacquire up to 7.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at IPG Photonics

In other IPG Photonics news, major shareholder Valentin Gapontsev Trust I sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.68, for a total value of $856,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 7,219,599 shares in the company, valued at $618,575,242.32. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other news, major shareholder Valentin Gapontsev Trust I sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.68, for a total transaction of $856,800.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 7,219,599 shares in the company, valued at approximately $618,575,242.32. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Eric Meurice sold 788 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.30, for a total transaction of $70,368.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 16,491 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,472,646.30. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 29,788 shares of company stock worth $2,595,508 over the last 90 days. 37.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of IPG Photonics

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in IPGP. Raymond James & Associates boosted its stake in IPG Photonics by 1,349.8% in the 4th quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 44,887 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $4,872,000 after purchasing an additional 41,791 shares in the last quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of IPG Photonics by 2,136.2% in the third quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC now owns 82,739 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $8,401,000 after buying an additional 79,039 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its holdings in shares of IPG Photonics by 70.7% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 56,965 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $6,183,000 after buying an additional 23,595 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of IPG Photonics by 2.9% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,039,073 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $308,587,000 after buying an additional 85,984 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP bought a new stake in shares of IPG Photonics during the third quarter valued at approximately $960,000. 93.79% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About IPG Photonics

IPG Photonics Corporation develops, manufactures, and sells various high-performance fiber lasers, fiber amplifiers, and diode lasers used in various applications primarily in materials processing worldwide. Its laser products include hybrid fiber-solid state lasers with green and ultraviolet wavelengths; fiber pigtailed packaged diodes and fiber coupled direct diode laser systems; high-energy pulsed lasers, multi-wavelength and tunable lasers, and single-polarization and single-frequency lasers; and high-power optical fiber delivery cables, fiber couplers, beam switches, chillers, scanners, and other accessories.