IPG Photonics (NASDAQ:IPGP) Shares Up 4.5%

IPG Photonics Co. (NASDAQ:IPGP - Get Free Report) shares shot up 4.5% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $91.51 and last traded at $91.34. 91,313 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 70% from the average session volume of 307,778 shares. The stock had previously closed at $87.39.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on IPGP. StockNews.com downgraded IPG Photonics from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, February 17th. Citigroup downgraded IPG Photonics from a "neutral" rating to a "sell" rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $111.00 to $74.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on IPG Photonics from $130.00 to $115.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of IPG Photonics in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, IPG Photonics currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $117.20.

IPG Photonics Price Performance

The firm has a market cap of $4.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.62, a P/E/G ratio of 17.11 and a beta of 1.19. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $90.51 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $95.42.

IPG Photonics (NASDAQ:IPGP - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 13th. The semiconductor company reported $0.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.95 by ($0.06). IPG Photonics had a return on equity of 9.18% and a net margin of 17.00%. The firm had revenue of $298.89 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $287.03 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned ($1.91) earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 10.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that IPG Photonics Co. will post 3.23 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

IPG Photonics declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, February 13th that permits the company to repurchase $300.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the semiconductor company to repurchase up to 7.3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company's leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at IPG Photonics

In related news, Director Eric Meurice sold 629 shares of IPG Photonics stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.00, for a total transaction of $62,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 16,491 shares in the company, valued at $1,649,100. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other IPG Photonics news, Director Eric Meurice sold 629 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.00, for a total value of $62,900.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 16,491 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,649,100. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Valentin Gapontsev Trust I sold 10,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.56, for a total value of $895,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 7,209,599 shares in the company, valued at $645,691,686.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 20,629 shares of company stock worth $1,815,300 over the last three months. 37.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of IPG Photonics

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of IPG Photonics by 127.2% in the third quarter. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC now owns 259 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 145 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Middle East FZE acquired a new stake in shares of IPG Photonics in the fourth quarter worth approximately $28,000. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of IPG Photonics in the fourth quarter worth approximately $40,000. Disciplined Equity Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of IPG Photonics in the fourth quarter worth approximately $43,000. Finally, Assetmark Inc. boosted its stake in IPG Photonics by 39.4% during the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 612 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $62,000 after buying an additional 173 shares during the last quarter. 93.79% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

IPG Photonics Company Profile

IPG Photonics Corporation develops, manufactures, and sells various high-performance fiber lasers, fiber amplifiers, and diode lasers used in various applications primarily in materials processing worldwide. Its laser products include hybrid fiber-solid state lasers with green and ultraviolet wavelengths; fiber pigtailed packaged diodes and fiber coupled direct diode laser systems; high-energy pulsed lasers, multi-wavelength and tunable lasers, and single-polarization and single-frequency lasers; and high-power optical fiber delivery cables, fiber couplers, beam switches, chillers, scanners, and other accessories.