IPG Photonics (NASDAQ:IPGP) Hits New 52-Week High Following Analyst Upgrade

IPG Photonics Corporation (NASDAQ:IPGP) hit a new 52-week high on Wednesday after Citigroup upgraded the stock from a sell rating to a buy rating. Citigroup now has a $105.00 price target on the stock. IPG Photonics traded as high as $90.92 and last traded at $87.4650, with a volume of 36154 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $84.00.

Several other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d)” rating on shares of IPG Photonics in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of IPG Photonics from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 9th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $92.00 target price on shares of IPG Photonics in a research note on Tuesday. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of IPG Photonics from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $97.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, Roth Capital set a $96.00 price objective on shares of IPG Photonics and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $89.33.

Insider Activity

In related news, major shareholder Fibre Devices Ltd Ip sold 35,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $82.10, for a total value of $2,873,500.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 6,849,837 shares in the company, valued at $562,371,617.70. This represents a 0.51% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, major shareholder Valentin Gapontsev Trust I sold 52,320 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.71, for a total transaction of $4,222,747.20. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 7,073,279 shares in the company, valued at $570,884,348.09. This represents a 0.73% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 274,630 shares of company stock worth $22,881,519 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 39.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On IPG Photonics

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Savant Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of IPG Photonics by 4.3% in the 3rd quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 26,783 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $2,121,000 after acquiring an additional 1,113 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of IPG Photonics by 11.1% in the 3rd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 42,263 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $3,347,000 after acquiring an additional 4,217 shares during the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH raised its holdings in shares of IPG Photonics by 45.2% in the 3rd quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 200,138 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $15,849,000 after acquiring an additional 62,286 shares during the last quarter. Ballast Asset Management LP raised its holdings in shares of IPG Photonics by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Ballast Asset Management LP now owns 34,941 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $2,767,000 after acquiring an additional 197 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AlphaQuest LLC raised its holdings in shares of IPG Photonics by 146.3% in the 3rd quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 5,713 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $452,000 after acquiring an additional 3,393 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.79% of the company’s stock.

IPG Photonics Stock Performance

The stock’s fifty day moving average is $83.36 and its two-hundred day moving average is $74.45. The company has a market cap of $3.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -17.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 23.95 and a beta of 1.04.

IPG Photonics (NASDAQ:IPGP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 5th. The semiconductor company reported $0.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.10 by $0.20. IPG Photonics had a negative net margin of 22.77% and a positive return on equity of 2.25%. The business had revenue of $250.72 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $228.20 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.45 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that IPG Photonics Corporation will post 1.54 EPS for the current year.

IPG Photonics Company Profile

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.