IPG Photonics Co. (NASDAQ:IPGP) Given Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

IPG Photonics Co. (NASDAQ:IPGP) has received an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the five analysts that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $117.20.

IPGP has been the subject of several recent research reports. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on IPG Photonics from $130.00 to $115.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. StockNews.com cut IPG Photonics from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 17th. Citigroup cut IPG Photonics from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $111.00 to $74.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of IPG Photonics in a research note on Thursday, January 25th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, major shareholder Valentin Gapontsev Trust I sold 9,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.86, for a total transaction of $772,740.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 7,200,599 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $618,243,430.14. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders sold 29,000 shares of company stock valued at $2,525,140 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 33.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in IPG Photonics by 2.9% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,039,073 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $308,587,000 after acquiring an additional 85,984 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in IPG Photonics by 9.6% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 836,794 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $84,968,000 after acquiring an additional 73,182 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in IPG Photonics by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 789,991 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $85,750,000 after acquiring an additional 8,445 shares in the last quarter. Channing Capital Management LLC bought a new position in IPG Photonics in the fourth quarter worth approximately $70,719,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in IPG Photonics by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 388,257 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $42,141,000 after acquiring an additional 5,958 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.79% of the company’s stock.

IPG Photonics Stock Down 5.2 %

Shares of IPGP opened at $83.98 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $3.87 billion, a PE ratio of 18.18, a PEG ratio of 17.53 and a beta of 1.19. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $87.72 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $94.15. IPG Photonics has a 12-month low of $80.33 and a 12-month high of $141.85.

IPG Photonics (NASDAQ:IPGP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The semiconductor company reported $0.89 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.95 by ($0.06). The company had revenue of $298.89 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $287.03 million. IPG Photonics had a net margin of 17.00% and a return on equity of 9.18%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 10.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted ($1.91) EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that IPG Photonics will post 3.23 EPS for the current year.

IPG Photonics announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, February 13th that allows the company to buyback $300.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization allows the semiconductor company to reacquire up to 7.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

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.