Insider Selling: nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) CEO Sells $8,422,000.00 in Stock

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) CEO Scott Keeney sold 200,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.11, for a total transaction of $8,422,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,760,034 shares in the company, valued at approximately $74,115,031.74. This trade represents a 10.20% decrease in their position. The transaction 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.

nLight Stock Down 3.2%

Shares of nLight stock traded down $1.42 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $43.06. The company had a trading volume of 734,035 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,352,788. The stock has a market cap of $2.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -187.22 and a beta of 2.46. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $38.60 and a 200 day simple moving average of $57.18. nLight has a 12-month low of $28.05 and a 12-month high of $86.95.

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 5th. The company reported $0.16 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.05 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $73.76 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $68.16 million. nLight had a negative net margin of 4.02% and a negative return on equity of 1.03%. nLight’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.08 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that nLight will post -0.14 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On nLight

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new position in nLight in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $8,938,000. Tidal Investments LLC raised its position in nLight by 2,995.5% during the 2nd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 406,624 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,309,000 after buying an additional 393,488 shares during the last quarter. Amundi purchased a new position in nLight during the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,023,000. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC purchased a new position in nLight during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $3,740,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in nLight by 743.0% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 422,295 shares of the company’s stock valued at $16,446,000 after acquiring an additional 372,199 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.88% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently commented on LASR. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of nLight in a research note on Thursday, October 15th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of nLight from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, July 18th. Northcoast Research raised nLight from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $75.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 7th. Zacks Research raised nLight from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Needham & Company LLC started coverage on nLight in a research note on Tuesday, November 3rd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $50.00 target price for the company. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, nLight presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $82.06.

About nLight

nLIGHT, Inc. develops and manufactures lasers and related photonics products for industrial, aerospace and defense applications. Its offerings include high-power semiconductor lasers, fiber lasers and ultrafast lasers, along with components and systems used to deliver and control laser energy. The company’s products support applications such as materials processing and other industrial tasks, as well as defense technologies including directed-energy systems. nLIGHT serves customers in the United States and international markets.