Insider Selling: nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) CFO Sells 13,038 Shares of Stock

Key Points

• nLight CFO Joseph John Corso sold 13,038 shares on March 5 at an average price of $61.96 for about $807,834, reducing his stake by 6.64% to 183,186 shares (valued ≈ $11.35M).
• The March 5 sale continues recent insider selling, following disposals of 12,290 shares on March 6 and 66,075 shares on December 15, indicating sizable, repeated stock sales by the CFO.
• nLight recently reported strong top-line growth but remains unprofitable: revenue rose 71.3% to $81.19M with EPS of $0.14 beating estimates, the stock traded near $61 (up ~4%), and analysts hold a consensus "Moderate Buy" with an average target of $58.31 and some targets up to $70.

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR - Get Free Report) CFO Joseph John Corso sold 13,038 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.96, for a total transaction of $807,834.48. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 183,186 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,350,204.56. The trade was a 6.64% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Joseph John Corso also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Friday, March 6th, Joseph John Corso sold 12,290 shares of nLight stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.39, for a total value of $742,193.10.
• On Monday, December 15th, Joseph John Corso sold 66,075 shares of nLight stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.32, for a total value of $2,399,844.00.

nLight Stock Up 4.0%

Shares of LASR stock traded up $2.36 on Monday, hitting $61.00. The company had a trading volume of 1,689,616 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,992,397. nLight has a twelve month low of $6.20 and a twelve month high of $69.52. The firm has a market cap of $3.40 billion, a P/E ratio of -129.79 and a beta of 2.27. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $49.25 and a 200-day moving average price of $38.16.

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The company reported $0.14 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.11 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $81.19 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $76.71 million. nLight had a negative return on equity of 9.28% and a negative net margin of 8.98%.nLight's revenue for the quarter was up 71.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned ($0.30) earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that nLight will post -1.1 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

LASR has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC raised their price objective on shares of nLight from $48.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Weiss Ratings reissued a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of nLight in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Canaccord Genuity Group upgraded shares of nLight to a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 17th. Stifel Nicolaus assumed coverage on shares of nLight in a report on Tuesday, January 20th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $60.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of nLight from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Saturday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, nLight has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $58.31.

Institutional Trading of nLight

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in LASR. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. lifted its position in shares of nLight by 22.3% during the 4th 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. increased its holdings in nLight by 1.6% in 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 raised its position in nLight by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 13,745 shares of the company's stock worth $516,000 after acquiring an additional 358 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in nLight by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 26,574 shares of the company's stock valued at $997,000 after purchasing an additional 422 shares in the last quarter. Finally, NewEdge Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in nLight by 8.0% during the fourth quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 6,003 shares of the company's stock valued at $225,000 after purchasing an additional 443 shares in the last quarter. 83.88% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.

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