Insider Selling: nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) CEO Sells $8,520,440.00 in Stock

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) CEO Scott Keeney sold 181,750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $46.88, for a total value of $8,520,440.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,185,039 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $102,434,628.32. This trade represents a 7.68% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

nLight Trading Up 3.0%

nLight stock opened at $44.99 on Friday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $62.03 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $65.02. nLight has a 12 month low of $27.22 and a 12 month high of $86.95. The company has a market capitalization of $2.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -179.96 and a beta of 2.31.

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported $0.15 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.14 by $0.01. nLight had a negative return on equity of 2.83% and a negative net margin of 4.02%.The firm had revenue of $82.59 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $78.58 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.06 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 33.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict that nLight will post -0.19 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On nLight

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Lisanti Capital Growth LLC grew its stake in shares of nLight by 23.0% in the fourth quarter. Lisanti Capital Growth LLC now owns 103,978 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,900,000 after acquiring an additional 19,435 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted 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 during the period. Amundi purchased a new stake in nLight in the first quarter worth approximately $1,023,000. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC purchased a new stake in nLight in the second quarter worth approximately $3,740,000. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH purchased a new stake in nLight in the fourth quarter worth approximately $788,000. 83.88% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

LASR has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of nLight from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 21st. Zacks Research downgraded shares of nLight from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 4th. Raymond James Financial reiterated a “strong-buy” rating and set a $100.00 price target on shares of nLight in a report on Friday, May 8th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of nLight from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, July 18th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on shares of nLight from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $87.94.

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.