James Nias Sells 1,565 Shares of nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) Stock

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) CAO James Nias sold 1,565 shares of nLight stock in a transaction on Monday, May 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.82, for a total transaction of $110,833.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 100,594 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,124,067.08. This represents a 1.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 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 Friday, May 15th, James Nias sold 1,487 shares of nLight stock. The shares were 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 shares were 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 shares were sold at an average price of $61.96, for a total transaction of $201,308.04.

nLight Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ LASR opened at $71.30 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $4.02 billion, a P/E ratio of -237.66 and a beta of 2.34. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $68.22 and its two-hundred day moving average is $51.57. nLight has a 52-week low of $13.24 and a 52-week high of $86.95.

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.08 by $0.12. nLight had a negative net margin of 5.08% and a negative return on equity of 4.18%. The company had revenue of $80.18 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $72.14 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.04) EPS. nLight’s revenue for the quarter was up 55.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that nLight will post -0.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

LASR has been the topic of a number of research reports. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $100.00 price objective on shares of nLight in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $75.00 price objective (up from $68.00) on shares of nLight in a research note on Friday, April 17th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of nLight in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of nLight from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, May 9th. Finally, Roth Mkm restated a “buy” rating and issued a $81.00 target price on shares of nLight in a report on Friday, April 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $67.81.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On nLight

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of LASR. Osaic Holdings Inc. increased its position in shares of nLight by 1,599.1% during the 2nd quarter. Osaic Holdings Inc. now owns 1,835 shares of the company’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 1,727 shares during the last quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. increased its position in shares of nLight by 7,142.9% during the 4th quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 1,014 shares of the company’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 1,000 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of nLight by 155.9% during the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,062 shares of the company’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 647 shares during the last quarter. Financial Consulate Inc. bought a new position in shares of nLight during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Finally, Wexford Capital LP bought a new position in shares of nLight during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Institutional investors 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.