nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) Shares Down 9.2% – Time to Sell?

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR)’s stock price fell 9.2% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $58.47 and last traded at $59.2870. 404,225 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 72% from the average session volume of 1,469,152 shares. The stock had previously closed at $65.30.

Analyst Ratings Changes

LASR has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC raised their target price on nLight from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of nLight in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of nLight from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 21st. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $100.00 price objective on shares of nLight in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Roth Capital reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $81.00 target price on shares of nLight in a research note on Friday, April 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $75.50.

nLight Price Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $3.32 billion, a PE ratio of -196.00 and a beta of 2.30. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $70.63 and its 200 day simple moving average is $59.90.

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.20 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $80.18 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $72.14 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned ($0.04) earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 55.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that nLight will post -0.17 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other nLight news, CEO Scott H. Keeney sold 46,735 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.48, for a total transaction of $3,200,412.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,375,519 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $162,675,541.12. The trade was a 1.93% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available 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 on 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 owned 177,572 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,501,068.80. This represents a 16.65% decrease in their position. 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 sold a total of 391,038 shares of company stock valued at $28,367,419 over the last quarter. 3.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of nLight

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in nLight by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,989,758 shares of the company’s stock valued at $187,166,000 after buying an additional 125,446 shares in the last quarter. Needham Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of nLight by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Needham Investment Management LLC now owns 1,857,740 shares of the company’s stock valued at $69,684,000 after acquiring an additional 65,000 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in shares of nLight by 32.3% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,399,229 shares of the company’s stock valued at $52,485,000 after acquiring an additional 341,948 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in nLight by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,234,696 shares of the company’s stock valued at $46,320,000 after acquiring an additional 20,043 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Artisan Partners Limited Partnership purchased a new position in nLight during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $41,315,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.88% of the company’s stock.

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.