James Nias Sells 415 Shares of nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) Stock

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) CAO James Nias sold 415 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.09, for a total value of $29,502.35. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 98,561 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,006,701.49. The trade was a 0.42% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 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.

James Nias also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Tuesday, May 19th, James Nias sold 1,618 shares of nLight stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.48, for a total value of $110,800.64.
• On Monday, May 18th, James Nias sold 1,565 shares of nLight stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.82, for a total transaction of $110,833.30.
• On Friday, May 15th, James Nias sold 1,487 shares of nLight stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.16, for a total transaction of $111,762.92.
• On Thursday, March 12th, James Nias sold 1,808 shares of nLight stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.42, for a total transaction of $116,471.36.
• On Thursday, March 5th, James Nias sold 3,249 shares of nLight stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.96, for a total transaction of $201,308.04.

nLight Stock Up 2.8%

LASR opened at $78.54 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $68.72 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $52.06. nLight has a 52 week low of $13.45 and a 52 week high of $86.95. The company has a market capitalization of $4.43 billion, a PE ratio of -261.79 and a beta of 2.34.

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.20 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.08 by $0.12. nLight had a negative net margin of 5.08% and a negative return on equity of 4.18%. The business had revenue of $80.18 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $72.14 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.04) EPS. The business’s revenue was up 55.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that nLight will post -0.17 earnings per share for the current year.

nLight News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting nLight this week:

• Positive Sentiment: nLight’s recent quarterly results beat expectations, with EPS of $0.20 versus $0.08 expected and revenue of $80.18 million versus $72.14 million expected. Revenue also rose 55.2% year over year, reinforcing the view that business momentum remains strong.
• Positive Sentiment: Research coverage has stayed constructive, including reports highlighting nLight as a strong momentum stock and multiple bullish analyst ratings, which can help support investor confidence in LASR.
• Neutral Sentiment: Several executives, including CEO Scott H. Keeney, CFO Joseph John Corso, and CAO James Nias, sold shares recently. The filings say the trades were made under pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plans and to cover tax withholding on vested equity awards, which makes them less concerning than discretionary selling.
• Negative Sentiment: Even though the insider sales appear routine, the volume of selling from top executives may still weigh on sentiment in the short term as some investors interpret it as profit-taking after a sharp run-up in the share price.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in LASR. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership bought a new position in shares of nLight in the 4th quarter valued at about $41,315,000. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of nLight by 377.2% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,057,281 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,327,000 after acquiring an additional 835,720 shares during the last quarter. Portolan Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of nLight in the 3rd quarter valued at about $22,809,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of nLight by 18.2% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,864,312 shares of the company’s stock valued at $144,130,000 after acquiring an additional 747,958 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP lifted its holdings in shares of nLight by 537.8% in the 3rd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 631,486 shares of the company’s stock valued at $18,711,000 after acquiring an additional 532,470 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.88% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on LASR. Raymond James Financial reissued a “strong-buy” rating and set a $100.00 price objective on shares of nLight in a report on Friday, May 8th. William Blair began coverage on shares of nLight in a report on Friday, March 27th. They set an “outperform” rating for the company. Wall Street Zen raised shares of nLight from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, May 9th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of nLight in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. Finally, Roth Mkm reissued a “buy” rating and set a $81.00 price objective on shares of nLight in a report on Friday, April 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, nLight currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $69.06.

About nLight

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.