nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) Research Coverage Started at Robert W. Baird

Robert W. Baird assumed coverage on shares of nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) in a research note published on Wednesday morning, MarketBeat reports. The firm issued an outperform rating and a $95.00 price target on the stock.

Several other research firms also recently issued reports on LASR. Stifel Nicolaus began coverage on nLight in a report on Tuesday, January 20th. They set a “buy” rating and a $60.00 price objective on the stock. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their target price on shares of nLight from $40.00 to $62.50 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 27th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of nLight from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, February 8th. Roth Mkm boosted their price target on shares of nLight from $44.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of nLight in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $58.31.

nLight Stock Down 6.3%

LASR opened at $58.64 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $3.27 billion, a PE ratio of -124.77 and a beta of 2.27. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $48.81 and a 200-day simple moving average of $37.76. nLight has a fifty-two week low of $6.20 and a fifty-two week high of $69.52.

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The company reported $0.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.11 by $0.03. nLight had a negative return on equity of 9.28% and a negative net margin of 8.98%.The company had revenue of $81.19 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $76.71 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.30) earnings per share. nLight’s revenue for the quarter was up 71.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that nLight will post -1.1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Joseph John Corso sold 66,075 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.32, for a total value of $2,399,844.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 196,224 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,126,855.68. This represents a 25.19% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Scott H. Keeney sold 31,748 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.51, for a total value of $1,190,867.48. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,285,020 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $85,711,100.20. The trade was a 1.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 4.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of nLight

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in LASR. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in nLight by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,989,758 shares of the company’s stock valued at $187,166,000 after purchasing an additional 125,446 shares in the last quarter. Harvey Partners LLC lifted its position in nLight by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter. Harvey Partners LLC now owns 2,107,348 shares of the company’s stock worth $41,473,000 after buying an additional 34,348 shares in the last quarter. Needham Investment Management LLC lifted its position in nLight by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Needham Investment Management LLC now owns 1,857,740 shares of the company’s stock worth $69,684,000 after buying an additional 65,000 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of nLight by 32.3% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,399,229 shares of the company’s stock valued at $52,485,000 after buying an additional 341,948 shares during the period. Finally, AWM Investment Company Inc. boosted its stake in shares of nLight by 1.9% during the 2nd quarter. AWM Investment Company Inc. now owns 1,344,917 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,468,000 after buying an additional 25,000 shares during the period. 83.88% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.