nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) Rating Increased to Buy at Wall Street Zen

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) was upgraded by equities researchers at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Saturday.

Several other research analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating and set a $75.00 price objective on shares of nLight in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Canaccord Genuity Group raised nLight to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 17th. Needham & Company LLC boosted their target price on nLight from $48.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of nLight in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Finally, Roth Mkm increased their price target on shares of nLight from $44.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold 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 “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $58.31.

nLight Stock Down 6.3%

Shares of nLight stock opened at $58.64 on Friday. nLight has a 52-week low of $6.20 and a 52-week high of $69.52. The company has a market capitalization of $3.27 billion, a P/E ratio of -124.77 and a beta of 2.27. The company has a 50 day moving average of $48.81 and a 200 day moving average of $37.76.

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 26th. The company reported $0.14 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.11 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $81.19 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $76.71 million. nLight had a negative net margin of 8.98% and a negative return on equity of 9.28%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 71.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.30) EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that nLight will post -1.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at nLight

In other news, CFO Joseph John Corso sold 66,075 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.32, for a total value of $2,399,844.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 196,224 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,126,855.68. This trade represents a 25.19% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Scott H. Keeney sold 31,748 shares of nLight stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.51, for a total value of $1,190,867.48. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,285,020 shares in the company, valued at approximately $85,711,100.20. This trade represents a 1.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 4.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of nLight

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in LASR. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in nLight by 22.3% in the fourth quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. now owns 1,225 shares of the company’s stock valued at $46,000 after buying an additional 223 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in shares of nLight by 1.6% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 22,301 shares of the company’s stock worth $661,000 after acquiring an additional 357 shares in the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of nLight by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 13,745 shares of the company’s stock worth $516,000 after acquiring an additional 358 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in shares of nLight by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 26,574 shares of the company’s stock worth $997,000 after acquiring an additional 422 shares during the period. Finally, NewEdge Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of nLight by 8.0% in the 4th quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 6,003 shares of the company’s stock worth $225,000 after acquiring an additional 443 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.88% of the company’s stock.

nLight Company 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.