IPG Photonics (NASDAQ:IPGP) Given New $68.00 Price Target at Citigroup

IPG Photonics (NASDAQ:IPGP) had its price target trimmed by Citigroup from $74.00 to $68.00 in a research report sent to investors on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a sell rating on the semiconductor company’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently commented on IPGP. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on shares of IPG Photonics from $130.00 to $115.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. StockNews.com lowered IPG Photonics from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Saturday, February 17th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a hold rating on shares of IPG Photonics in a report on Wednesday, May 1st. Benchmark lowered their price objective on IPG Photonics from $116.00 to $106.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 1st. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn reiterated a buy rating on shares of IPG Photonics in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $110.40.

IPG Photonics Trading Up 0.1 %

IPGP stock opened at $86.76 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $3.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.36, a P/E/G ratio of 19.82 and a beta of 1.17. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $87.69 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $93.96. IPG Photonics has a 1-year low of $80.33 and a 1-year high of $141.85.

IPG Photonics (NASDAQ:IPGP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The semiconductor company reported $0.52 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.04. IPG Photonics had a net margin of 15.34% and a return on equity of 7.67%. The company had revenue of $252.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $255.53 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.26 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 27.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that IPG Photonics will post 2.81 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

IPG Photonics announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase 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 buy up to 7.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder Valentin Gapontsev Trust I sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.68, for a total transaction of $856,800.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 7,219,599 shares in the company, valued at $618,575,242.32. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other 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 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 approximately $618,575,242.32. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Eric Meurice sold 788 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, April 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.30, for a total value of $70,368.40. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 16,491 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,472,646.30. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 29,788 shares of company stock worth $2,595,508 in the last quarter. 37.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of IPG Photonics

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of IPGP. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in IPG Photonics by 2.9% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,039,073 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $308,587,000 after purchasing an additional 85,984 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in shares of IPG Photonics by 9.6% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 836,794 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $84,968,000 after buying an additional 73,182 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of IPG Photonics by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 789,991 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $85,750,000 after acquiring an additional 8,445 shares during the last quarter. Channing Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in IPG Photonics in the fourth quarter worth $70,719,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in IPG Photonics by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 388,257 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $42,141,000 after acquiring an additional 5,958 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.79% of the company’s stock.

About IPG Photonics

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.