Rice Hall James & Associates LLC Sells 14,559 Shares of nLight $LASR

Rice Hall James & Associates LLC decreased its position in shares of nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) by 14.6% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 84,995 shares of the company’s stock after selling 14,559 shares during the quarter. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC’s holdings in nLight were worth $3,188,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in nLight by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,989,758 shares of the company’s stock valued at $187,166,000 after acquiring an additional 125,446 shares during the last quarter. Needham Investment Management LLC grew its holdings 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 worth $69,684,000 after purchasing an additional 65,000 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of nLight by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,234,696 shares of the company’s stock worth $46,320,000 after purchasing an additional 20,043 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of nLight by 377.2% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,057,281 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,327,000 after purchasing an additional 835,720 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Senvest Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of nLight by 10.8% in the fourth quarter. Senvest Management LLC now owns 997,501 shares of the company’s stock worth $37,416,000 after purchasing an additional 96,946 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.88% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on LASR. Needham & Company LLC upped their price target on shares of nLight from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. Raymond James Financial restated a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $100.00 price target on shares of nLight in a report on Friday, May 8th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of nLight from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, May 9th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of nLight in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. Finally, William Blair began coverage on shares of nLight in a report on Friday, March 27th. They issued an “outperform” rating on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $69.06.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Scott H. Keeney sold 16,089 shares of the company’s 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,185,039 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $163,003,909.40. This represents a 0.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 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, CAO James Nias sold 940 shares of the company’s 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 completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 97,621 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,613,461.79. This trade represents a 0.95% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 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 three months. 3.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

nLight Price Performance

NASDAQ:LASR opened at $66.26 on Wednesday. nLight has a 1-year low of $16.87 and a 1-year high of $86.95. The company has a 50-day moving average of $71.24 and a 200 day moving average of $57.05. The firm has a market cap of $3.74 billion, a PE ratio of -220.86 and a beta of 2.31.

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.20 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 company had revenue of $80.18 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $72.14 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.04) earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 55.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that nLight will post -0.17 EPS for the current fiscal year.

nLight 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.