Insider Selling: nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) CAO Sells 415 Shares of Stock

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) CAO James Nias sold 415 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.09, for a total value of $29,502.35. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 98,561 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,006,701.49. This represents a 0.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at 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.

James Nias also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Tuesday, May 19th, James Nias sold 1,618 shares of nLight stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.48, for a total value of $110,800.64.
• On Monday, May 18th, James Nias sold 1,565 shares of nLight stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.82, for a total value of $110,833.30.
• On Friday, May 15th, James Nias sold 1,487 shares of nLight stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.16, for a total value of $111,762.92.
• On Thursday, March 12th, James Nias sold 1,808 shares of nLight stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.42, for a total value of $116,471.36.
• On Thursday, March 5th, James Nias sold 3,249 shares of nLight stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.96, for a total value of $201,308.04.

nLight Stock Up 7.2%

Shares of NASDAQ:LASR traded up $5.13 during trading on Thursday, reaching $76.43. 1,031,993 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,345,495. nLight has a 52 week low of $13.38 and a 52 week high of $86.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.31 billion, a PE ratio of -254.76 and a beta of 2.34. The company’s 50 day moving average is $68.47 and its two-hundred day moving average is $51.88.

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On nLight

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in LASR. Federated Hermes Inc. grew its stake in nLight by 161,736.7% during the third quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 79,300 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,350,000 after purchasing an additional 79,251 shares during the period. Emerald Mutual Fund Advisers Trust acquired a new stake in nLight during the third quarter worth approximately $8,626,000. FNY Investment Advisers LLC grew its stake in nLight by 6,151.0% during the third quarter. FNY Investment Advisers LLC now owns 41,819 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,239,000 after purchasing an additional 41,150 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake 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 purchasing an additional 125,446 shares during the period. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH acquired a new stake in nLight during the fourth quarter worth approximately $788,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.88% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on LASR. Roth Mkm restated a “buy” rating and set a $81.00 price objective on shares of nLight in a research report on Friday, April 24th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of nLight in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $100.00 target price on shares of nLight in a report on Friday, May 8th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on nLight from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised nLight from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, May 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, nLight presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $69.06.

Key Headlines Impacting nLight

Here are the key news stories impacting nLight this week:

• Positive Sentiment: nLight reported strong quarterly results earlier this month, with EPS of $0.20 versus estimates of $0.08 and revenue of $80.18 million versus expectations of $72.14 million. Revenue also rose 55.2% year over year, reinforcing the company’s growth story and helping support the stock.
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts remain broadly constructive, with several firms reiterating or raising buy ratings and price targets, including targets as high as $100. That suggests the market still sees room for more upside in LASR.
• Neutral Sentiment: Multiple insider sales were disclosed by CEO Scott H. Keeney, CFO Joseph John Corso, and CAO James Nias. The company said the trades were made under pre-arranged 10b5-1 plans and to cover tax withholding tied to vesting equity awards, which makes them less concerning than discretionary selling.
• Neutral Sentiment: The selling was sizable in dollar terms, especially from the CEO and CFO, so investors may still view it as a sentiment headwind even though the transactions appear routine.

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.