nLight's (LASR) Buy Rating Reaffirmed at Craig Hallum

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "buy" rating reissued by stock analysts at Craig Hallum in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday, MarketBeat.com reports. They presently have a $24.00 price objective on the stock, up from their prior price objective of $14.00. Craig Hallum's price objective indicates a potential upside of 22.51% from the stock's previous close.

Separately, Needham & Company LLC lifted their price target on shares of nLight from $14.00 to $18.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 29th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $17.70.

nLight Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ LASR traded up $1.30 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $19.59. 1,179,293 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 430,226. The firm has a market capitalization of $968.53 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -17.34 and a beta of 2.27. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $13.30 and its 200 day simple moving average is $10.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a quick ratio of 4.63 and a current ratio of 5.81. nLight has a 52 week low of $6.20 and a 52 week high of $19.94.

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported ($0.04) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.17) by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $51.67 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $47.77 million. nLight had a negative return on equity of 22.23% and a negative net margin of 26.80%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 16.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned ($0.17) EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that nLight will post -1.1 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at nLight

In other nLight news, CEO Scott H. Keeney sold 6,316 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.13, for a total transaction of $120,825.08. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,240,222 shares in the company, valued at $23,725,446.86. This represents a 0.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Joseph John Corso sold 10,062 shares of nLight stock in a transaction on Friday, June 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $17.62, for a total value of $177,292.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 166,362 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,931,298.44. The trade was a 5.70% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 168,233 shares of company stock valued at $2,787,492 over the last quarter. 4.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Picton Mahoney Asset Management grew its holdings in shares of nLight by 47.4% during the 4th quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Management now owns 2,907 shares of the company's stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 935 shares during the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its stake in nLight by 4.5% in the 4th quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 26,423 shares of the company's stock valued at $277,000 after purchasing an additional 1,140 shares during the last quarter. XTX Topco Ltd boosted its position in nLight by 7.2% in the fourth quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 24,522 shares of the company's stock valued at $257,000 after buying an additional 1,641 shares in the last quarter. Swiss National Bank grew its stake in shares of nLight by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 90,000 shares of the company's stock worth $944,000 after buying an additional 1,700 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP grew its stake in shares of nLight by 17.6% during the fourth quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 11,864 shares of the company's stock worth $124,000 after buying an additional 1,772 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.