Tidal Investments LLC Grows Stock Position in nLight $LASR

Tidal Investments LLC lifted its holdings in shares of nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) by 2,995.5% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 406,624 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 393,488 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC’s holdings in nLight were worth $28,309,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Lisanti Capital Growth LLC grew its position in nLight by 23.0% during the 4th quarter. Lisanti Capital Growth LLC now owns 103,978 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,900,000 after purchasing an additional 19,435 shares during the last quarter. Amundi purchased a new position in shares of nLight in the first quarter worth $1,023,000. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC acquired a new stake in shares of nLight during the second quarter worth $3,740,000. Lazard Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of nLight during the first quarter worth $1,847,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in shares of nLight by 263.9% in the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 50,096 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,488,000 after acquiring an additional 36,329 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.88% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO James Nias sold 1,025 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.69, for a total value of $41,707.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 96,596 shares in the company, valued at $3,930,491.24. The trade was a 1.05% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CEO Scott H. Keeney sold 181,750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $46.88, for a total transaction of $8,520,440.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,185,039 shares in the company, valued at approximately $102,434,628.32. This represents a 7.68% 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. Over the last three months, insiders sold 396,993 shares of company stock valued at $17,965,402. Insiders own 3.10% of the company’s stock.

nLight Stock Performance

Shares of LASR opened at $40.99 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $57.70 and its two-hundred day moving average is $64.24. The company has a market capitalization of $2.36 billion, a P/E ratio of -163.96 and a beta of 2.30. nLight has a fifty-two week low of $27.22 and a fifty-two week high of $86.95.

nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported $0.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.14 by $0.01. nLight had a negative return on equity of 2.83% and a negative net margin of 4.02%.The business had revenue of $82.59 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $78.58 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.06 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 33.8% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that nLight will post -0.19 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have commented on the company. Wall Street Zen cut nLight from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, July 18th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on nLight from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 21st. Needham & Company LLC raised their price objective on nLight from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Zacks Research downgraded nLight from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 4th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of nLight in a report on Friday, July 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $87.94.

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.