Dimensional Fund Advisors LP Purchases 87,693 Shares of IPG Photonics Co. (NASDAQ:IPGP)

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in IPG Photonics Co. (NASDAQ:IPGP – Get Rating) by 12.5% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 789,947 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after acquiring an additional 87,693 shares during the quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP’s holdings in IPG Photonics were worth $74,783,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Concord Wealth Partners bought a new stake in shares of IPG Photonics in the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC boosted its stake in IPG Photonics by 363.9% in the 4th quarter. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC now owns 566 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $54,000 after purchasing an additional 444 shares in the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC boosted its stake in IPG Photonics by 63.8% in the 4th quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 570 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $54,000 after purchasing an additional 222 shares in the last quarter. Janiczek Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in IPG Photonics by 112.4% in the 4th quarter. Janiczek Wealth Management LLC now owns 667 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $72,000 after purchasing an additional 353 shares in the last quarter. Finally, EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in IPG Photonics in the 4th quarter worth approximately $74,000. 63.50% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently commented on IPGP. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their target price on shares of IPG Photonics from $100.00 to $124.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 16th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of IPG Photonics from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 11th. Benchmark lowered their target price on shares of IPG Photonics from $140.00 to $134.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 3rd. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of IPG Photonics from $160.00 to $152.00 in a research note on Tuesday, May 9th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of IPG Photonics from $110.00 to $145.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 15th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, IPG Photonics has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $135.00.

IPG Photonics Trading Down 3.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ IPGP opened at $109.81 on Thursday. IPG Photonics Co. has a 12 month low of $79.88 and a 12 month high of $134.81. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $115.61 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $108.71. The stock has a market cap of $5.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 57.19, a PEG ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 1.22.

IPG Photonics (NASDAQ:IPGP – Get Rating) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, May 2nd. The semiconductor company reported $1.26 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.00 by $0.26. The firm had revenue of $347.17 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $330.60 million. IPG Photonics had a net margin of 7.14% and a return on equity of 4.62%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 6.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.31 EPS. Analysts forecast that IPG Photonics Co. will post 5.19 EPS for the current year.

IPG Photonics announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, May 2nd that authorizes the company to repurchase $200.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the semiconductor company to buy up to 3.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, major shareholder Valentin Gapontsev Trust I sold 16,500 shares of IPG Photonics stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $122.20, for a total transaction of $2,016,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 7,378,099 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $901,603,697.80. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders sold a total of 49,500 shares of company stock valued at $5,823,923 in the last three months. 33.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

About IPG Photonics

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IPG Photonics Corp. engages in the design, development, production and distribution of fiber lasers, laser systems, fiber amplifiers, and related optical components. Its products include lasers, beam delivery, medical, telecom equipment, product finder and components such as pump diodes, chillers, and mid-IR crystals.