nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) Stock Rating Lowered by Wall Street Zen

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) was downgraded by equities researchers at Wall Street Zen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued to investors on Saturday.

A number of other research firms have also recently weighed in on LASR. William Blair assumed coverage on nLight in a research note on Friday, March 27th. They issued an “outperform” rating on the stock. UBS Group set a $90.00 price objective on nLight in a research report on Friday, July 10th. Needham & Company LLC increased their price objective on nLight from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of nLight in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded nLight from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, July 6th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, nLight currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $80.94.

nLight Price Performance

Shares of nLight stock opened at $69.25 on Friday. nLight has a 52-week low of $18.51 and a 52-week high of $86.95. The company has a market capitalization of $3.91 billion, a P/E ratio of -230.83 and a beta of 2.30. The company has a 50 day moving average of $70.29 and a 200 day moving average of $61.76.

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.20 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.08 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $80.18 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $72.14 million. nLight had a negative net margin of 5.08% and a negative return on equity of 4.18%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 55.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.04) EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that nLight will post -0.17 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at nLight

In other news, CFO Joseph John Corso sold 35,476 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.40, for a total transaction of $2,497,510.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 177,572 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,501,068.80. This represents a 16.65% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CEO Scott H. Keeney sold 46,735 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.48, for a total value of $3,200,412.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,375,519 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $162,675,541.12. This represents a 1.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders have sold a total of 391,038 shares of company stock worth $28,367,419 in the last quarter. 3.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On nLight

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. raised its position in shares of nLight by 22.3% during the 4th quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. now owns 1,225 shares of the company’s stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 223 shares during the last quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP raised its stake in nLight by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 41,808 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,384,000 after purchasing an additional 281 shares during the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC raised its stake in nLight by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 13,745 shares of the company’s stock valued at $516,000 after purchasing an additional 358 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in nLight by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 26,574 shares of the company’s stock valued at $997,000 after purchasing an additional 422 shares during the last quarter. Finally, NewEdge Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in nLight by 8.0% in the 4th quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 6,003 shares of the company’s stock valued at $225,000 after purchasing an additional 443 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.