nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) CFO Sells 3,817 Shares

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) CFO Joseph John Corso sold 3,817 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.90, for a total value of $278,259.30. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 169,915 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,386,803.50. This trade represents a 2.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available 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.

Joseph John Corso also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Wednesday, June 3rd, Joseph John Corso sold 3,840 shares of nLight stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.99, for a total value of $299,481.60.
• On Wednesday, May 20th, Joseph John Corso sold 35,476 shares of nLight stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.40, for a total value of $2,497,510.40.
• On Tuesday, May 19th, Joseph John Corso sold 20,243 shares of nLight stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.48, for a total value of $1,386,240.64.
• On Monday, May 18th, Joseph John Corso sold 19,575 shares of nLight stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.82, for a total value of $1,386,301.50.
• On Friday, May 15th, Joseph John Corso sold 18,445 shares of nLight stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.16, for a total transaction of $1,386,326.20.

nLight Price Performance

NASDAQ:LASR traded down $9.04 on Friday, reaching $65.85. 1,160,903 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,511,003. The firm has a market cap of $3.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -219.49 and a beta of 2.31. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $70.34 and a 200-day simple moving average of $55.03. nLight has a 52 week low of $16.87 and a 52 week high of $86.95.

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.08 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $80.18 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 quarter in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.04) earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that nLight will post -0.17 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of nLight

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of LASR. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of nLight by 4.4% in the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 27,593 shares of the company’s stock valued at $214,000 after acquiring an additional 1,170 shares in the last quarter. Jane Street Group LLC increased its position in shares of nLight by 622.7% in the first quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 77,201 shares of the company’s stock worth $600,000 after purchasing an additional 66,518 shares during the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers increased its position in shares of nLight by 8.4% in the second quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 75,545 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,487,000 after purchasing an additional 5,828 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. raised its stake in nLight by 7.2% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 107,417 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,114,000 after purchasing an additional 7,179 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC bought a new stake in nLight during the second quarter valued at approximately $600,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.88% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have issued reports on LASR. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $100.00 price target on shares of nLight in a report on Friday, May 8th. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on nLight from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Robert W. Baird initiated coverage on nLight in a report on Wednesday, March 4th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $95.00 price objective on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on nLight from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 21st. Finally, Roth Mkm reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $81.00 price target on shares of nLight in a research report on Friday, April 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $69.06.

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.