nLight $LASR Holdings Boosted by Sei Investments Co.

Sei Investments Co. raised its position in shares of nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) by 61.2% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 291,788 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 110,829 shares during the period. Sei Investments Co.’s holdings in nLight were worth $16,638,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of LASR. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of nLight by 4.4% during the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 27,593 shares of the company’s stock valued at $214,000 after buying an additional 1,170 shares in the last quarter. Jane Street Group LLC lifted its stake in nLight by 622.7% in the 1st quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 77,201 shares of the company’s stock worth $600,000 after acquiring an additional 66,518 shares in the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers boosted its position in nLight by 8.4% during the 2nd quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 75,545 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,487,000 after acquiring an additional 5,828 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in nLight by 7.2% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 107,417 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,114,000 after acquiring an additional 7,179 shares during the period. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC purchased a new position in nLight during the 2nd quarter valued at about $600,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.88% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at nLight

In other news, CAO James Nias sold 940 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.99, for a total transaction of $73,310.60. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 97,621 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,613,461.79. This represents a 0.95% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CEO Scott H. Keeney sold 16,089 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.60, for a total value of $1,200,239.40. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,185,039 shares in the company, valued at approximately $163,003,909.40. This represents a 0.73% 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. In the last quarter, insiders sold 391,038 shares of company stock worth $28,367,419. 3.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

LASR has been the topic of a number of research reports. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on nLight from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 21st. UBS Group set a $90.00 price target on shares of nLight in a report on Friday, July 10th. Roth Capital reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $81.00 price objective on shares of nLight in a research report on Friday, April 24th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of nLight in a research note on Friday, July 17th. Finally, Raymond James Financial reiterated a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $100.00 target price on shares of nLight in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $80.94.

nLight Trading Down 6.7%

nLight stock opened at $59.07 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.33 billion, a P/E ratio of -196.89 and a beta of 2.30. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $68.92 and its 200-day simple moving average is $63.48. nLight has a 1-year low of $19.40 and a 1-year high of $86.95.

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.20 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.08 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $80.18 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $72.14 million. nLight had a negative net margin of 5.08% and a negative return on equity of 4.18%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 55.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted ($0.04) earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that nLight will post -0.17 earnings per share for the current year.

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.