State of Wyoming Invests $729,000 in nLight $LASR

State of Wyoming acquired a new position in shares of nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm acquired 10,478 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $729,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership bought a new stake in nLight during the fourth quarter valued at about $41,315,000. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in nLight by 377.2% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,057,281 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,327,000 after purchasing an additional 835,720 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP raised its holdings in nLight by 537.8% in the third quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 631,486 shares of the company’s stock worth $18,711,000 after purchasing an additional 532,470 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its position in shares of nLight by 119.4% during the third quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 755,754 shares of the company’s stock valued at $22,393,000 after buying an additional 411,360 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tema ETFs LLC lifted its position in shares of nLight by 84,128.8% during the second quarter. Tema ETFs LLC now owns 394,191 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,444,000 after buying an additional 393,723 shares during the last quarter. 83.88% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

LASR has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Raymond James Financial restated a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $100.00 price target on shares of nLight in a report on Friday, May 8th. Roth Capital reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $81.00 price objective on shares of nLight in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of nLight from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, July 18th. Craig Hallum raised their target price on shares of nLight from $80.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of nLight in a report on Friday, July 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $87.94.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other nLight news, CEO Scott H. Keeney sold 46,735 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.48, for a total value of $3,200,412.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,375,519 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $162,675,541.12. This represents a 1.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 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. Also, CFO Joseph John Corso sold 35,476 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.40, for a total value of $2,497,510.40. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 177,572 shares in the company, valued at $12,501,068.80. This represents a 16.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 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. Insiders have sold 262,191 shares of company stock valued at $18,971,155 over the last 90 days. 3.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

nLight Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ LASR opened at $52.60 on Monday. nLight has a 12 month low of $24.87 and a 12 month high of $86.95. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $65.54 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $65.02. The stock has a market cap of $3.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -210.40 and a beta of 2.31.

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported $0.15 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.14 by $0.01. nLight had a negative net margin of 4.02% and a negative return on equity of 2.83%. The firm had revenue of $82.59 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $78.58 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.06 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 33.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that nLight will post -0.2 EPS for the current year.

nLight 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.