Westport Asset Management Inc. Makes New $8.15 Million Investment in Lumentum Holdings Inc. $LITE

Westport Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Lumentum Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:LITE) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm acquired 9,500 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,152,000. Lumentum accounts for approximately 3.3% of Westport Asset Management Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 10th biggest position.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in LITE. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in Lumentum by 45.0% in the 4th quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 369,804 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $136,306,000 after purchasing an additional 114,714 shares during the period. Financiere des Professionnels Fonds d investissement inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Lumentum in the first quarter valued at approximately $2,046,000. Styrax Capital LP increased its position in shares of Lumentum by 3.6% in the first quarter. Styrax Capital LP now owns 140,000 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $98,386,000 after buying an additional 4,837 shares in the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. raised its stake in shares of Lumentum by 21,806.5% during the 1st quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 74,044 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $57,183,000 after buying an additional 73,706 shares during the period. Finally, Andar Capital Management HK Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Lumentum during the 4th quarter worth approximately $4,325,000. 94.05% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Lumentum news, SVP Jae Kim sold 1,366 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $909.43, for a total value of $1,242,281.38. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 45,973 shares in the company, valued at $41,809,225.39. This represents a 2.89% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 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, insider Vincent Retort sold 3,183 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $909.43, for a total value of $2,894,715.69. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 114,495 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $104,125,187.85. The trade was a 2.70% 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. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 9,965 shares of company stock valued at $8,993,110. Insiders own 0.43% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

LITE has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. B. Riley Financial reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Lumentum in a research note on Friday, May 1st. BNP Paribas Exane upped their price objective on shares of Lumentum from $1,040.00 to $1,300.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Lumentum from $900.00 to $1,000.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 12th. TD Cowen lifted their target price on shares of Lumentum from $800.00 to $820.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 12th. Finally, UBS Group set a $820.00 price target on shares of Lumentum in a research report on Wednesday, August 12th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,044.67.

Key Lumentum News

Here are the key news stories impacting Lumentum this week:

• Positive Sentiment: AI networking demand is accelerating. Analysts say rising adoption of near-packaged optics (NPO) and co-packaged optics (CPO), along with demand from hyperscale data centers, could drive substantial revenue growth and margin expansion. One analysis expects fiscal 2027 revenue to more than double, while also highlighting opportunities in both merchant and custom chips. Lumentum Upgrade
• Positive Sentiment: Lumentum compares favorably with other AI technology stocks. Recent coverage points to steadier quarter-over-quarter revenue expansion than C3.ai and stronger growth prospects than Applied Optoelectronics, supporting the view that Lumentum is a preferred way to invest in optical networking. AAOI versus Lumentum
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst sentiment remains favorable, but valuation is demanding. Lumentum has a broad “Moderate Buy” consensus and several price-target increases, yet its approximately 11.4-times sales multiple leaves the stock vulnerable to profit-taking if growth expectations weaken. Lumentum Moderate Buy Rating
• Negative Sentiment: Sector-wide AI risk aversion is the immediate pressure. Reports involving Anthropic and a Wall Street Journal article triggered a selloff in optics and AI hardware shares, raising concerns about the pace or durability of AI infrastructure spending. Optics Stocks Drop on Anthropic News
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling adds a modest sentiment headwind. Two executives sold shares under pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plans to cover tax withholding on vested equity awards. Because the sales were planned and the executives retained sizable positions, they appear less significant than discretionary selling. Lumentum Insider Sale

Lumentum Stock Down 5.2%

NASDAQ LITE opened at $827.60 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $811.06 and a 200 day moving average price of $786.24. Lumentum Holdings Inc. has a one year low of $111.20 and a one year high of $1,085.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a quick ratio of 1.40 and a current ratio of 1.68. The company has a market cap of $74.24 billion, a P/E ratio of -10.07 and a beta of 1.50.

Lumentum (NASDAQ:LITE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 11th. The technology company reported $3.23 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.97 by $0.26. The company had revenue of $1.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $987.70 million. Lumentum had a positive return on equity of 26.34% and a negative net margin of 230.15%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 109.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.88 EPS. Lumentum has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 4.050-4.350 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Lumentum Holdings Inc. will post 16.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Lumentum

Lumentum Holdings Inc, headquartered in San Jose, California, is a leading provider of photonic technologies that enable high-speed optical communication networks and advanced industrial applications. The company designs and manufactures a broad range of lasers, optical modules and subsystems tailored to the evolving requirements of telecommunications carriers, cloud data centers and enterprise networking.

Its core product portfolio includes tunable and fixed-wavelength laser transmitters, coherent optical engines, transceivers for long-haul, metro and data center interconnects, as well as test and measurement instruments.