8,300 Shares in IPG Photonics Co. (NASDAQ:IPGP) Acquired by Louisiana State Employees Retirement System

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new position in IPG Photonics Co. (NASDAQ:IPGP) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund purchased 8,300 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $901,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Arizona State Retirement System lifted its stake in IPG Photonics by 1.4% in the third quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 8,755 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $889,000 after acquiring an additional 118 shares during the last quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. lifted its position in shares of IPG Photonics by 18.4% during the 4th quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 922 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $102,000 after buying an additional 143 shares during the last quarter. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC lifted its position in shares of IPG Photonics by 127.2% during the 3rd quarter. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC now owns 259 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 145 shares during the last quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of IPG Photonics by 4.8% during the 3rd quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 3,264 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $331,000 after buying an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Assetmark Inc. lifted its position in shares of IPG Photonics by 39.4% during the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 612 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $62,000 after buying an additional 173 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.79% of the company’s stock.

IPG Photonics Price Performance

Shares of IPG Photonics stock opened at $88.24 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $87.70 and its 200-day simple moving average is $94.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.10, a PEG ratio of 16.93 and a beta of 1.19. IPG Photonics Co. has a 12 month low of $83.00 and a 12 month high of $141.85.

IPG Photonics (NASDAQ:IPGP) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The semiconductor company reported $0.89 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95 by ($0.06). The business had revenue of $298.89 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $287.03 million. IPG Photonics had a net margin of 17.00% and a return on equity of 9.18%. The business’s revenue was down 10.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned ($1.91) earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that IPG Photonics Co. will post 3.23 earnings per share for the current year.

IPG Photonics declared that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Tuesday, February 13th that authorizes the company to buyback $300.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the semiconductor company to purchase up to 7.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other IPG Photonics news, major shareholder Valentin Gapontsev Trust I sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.68, for a total value of $856,800.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 7,219,599 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $618,575,242.32. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other IPG Photonics news, Director Eric Meurice sold 629 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.00, for a total value of $62,900.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 16,491 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,649,100. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, major shareholder Valentin Gapontsev Trust I sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.68, for a total transaction of $856,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 7,219,599 shares in the company, valued at $618,575,242.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 29,629 shares of company stock valued at $2,588,040 in the last ninety days. 37.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on IPGP. Citigroup downgraded shares of IPG Photonics from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $111.00 to $74.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Seaport Res Ptn restated a “buy” rating on shares of IPG Photonics in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on shares of IPG Photonics from $130.00 to $115.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of IPG Photonics from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $117.20.

IPG Photonics Profile

IPG Photonics Corporation develops, manufactures, and sells various high-performance fiber lasers, fiber amplifiers, and diode lasers used in various applications primarily in materials processing worldwide. Its laser products include hybrid fiber-solid state lasers with green and ultraviolet wavelengths; fiber pigtailed packaged diodes and fiber coupled direct diode laser systems; high-energy pulsed lasers, multi-wavelength and tunable lasers, and single-polarization and single-frequency lasers; and high-power optical fiber delivery cables, fiber couplers, beam switches, chillers, scanners, and other accessories.