Scott Keeney Sells 9,753 Shares of nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) Stock

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) CEO Scott Keeney sold 9,753 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.69, for a total value of $396,849.57. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,175,286 shares in the company, valued at approximately $88,512,387.34. This represents a 0.45% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards.

nLight Trading Down 1.3%

Shares of NASDAQ:LASR opened at $40.99 on Thursday. nLight has a twelve month low of $27.22 and a twelve month high of $86.95. The company’s 50 day moving average is $57.70 and its 200 day moving average is $64.24. The company has a market cap of $2.36 billion, a PE ratio of -163.96 and a beta of 2.30.

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported $0.15 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.14 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $82.59 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $78.58 million. nLight had a negative net margin of 4.02% and a negative return on equity of 2.83%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 33.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.06 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that nLight will post -0.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On nLight

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in nLight by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,989,758 shares of the company’s stock worth $187,166,000 after buying an additional 125,446 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in nLight in the second quarter valued at $339,687,000. California State Teachers Retirement System increased its holdings in nLight by 7,636.1% in the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 4,262,345 shares of the company’s stock valued at $296,744,000 after buying an additional 4,207,248 shares in the last quarter. Needham Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of nLight by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Needham Investment Management LLC now owns 1,857,740 shares of the company’s stock worth $69,684,000 after acquiring an additional 65,000 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its position in shares of nLight by 32.3% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,399,229 shares of the company’s stock worth $52,485,000 after acquiring an additional 341,948 shares during the period. 83.88% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on LASR shares. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of nLight from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 21st. Wall Street Zen downgraded nLight from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, July 18th. UBS Group set a $90.00 price objective on nLight in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Zacks Research cut nLight from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 4th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of nLight in a research note on Friday, July 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating, one has assigned 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.

About nLight

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.