IPG Photonics Co. (NASDAQ:IPGP) Short Interest Update

IPG Photonics Co. (NASDAQ:IPGP) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest in April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 867,800 shares, a growth of 15.2% from the March 31st total of 753,500 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 310,700 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.8 days. Currently, 3.1% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder Valentin Gapontsev Trust I sold 9,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.86, for a total value of $772,740.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 7,200,599 shares in the company, valued at approximately $618,243,430.14. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders have sold 29,000 shares of company stock worth $2,525,140 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 33.50% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On IPG Photonics

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Raymond James & Associates boosted its holdings in IPG Photonics by 1,349.8% during the 4th quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 44,887 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $4,872,000 after acquiring an additional 41,791 shares during the last quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of IPG Photonics by 2,136.2% during the 3rd quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC now owns 82,739 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $8,401,000 after purchasing an additional 79,039 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in shares of IPG Photonics by 70.7% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 56,965 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $6,183,000 after purchasing an additional 23,595 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of IPG Photonics by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,039,073 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $308,587,000 after purchasing an additional 85,984 shares during the period. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP bought a new stake in shares of IPG Photonics during the 3rd quarter worth $960,000. 93.79% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

IPG Photonics Trading Down 5.2 %

NASDAQ IPGP opened at $83.98 on Wednesday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $87.72 and a 200 day simple moving average of $94.15. IPG Photonics has a 12-month low of $80.33 and a 12-month high of $141.85. The company has a market cap of $3.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.18, a PEG ratio of 17.53 and a beta of 1.19.

IPG Photonics (NASDAQ:IPGP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 13th. The semiconductor company reported $0.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95 by ($0.06). The firm had revenue of $298.89 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $287.03 million. IPG Photonics had a return on equity of 9.18% and a net margin of 17.00%. IPG Photonics’s revenue was down 10.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned ($1.91) earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that IPG Photonics will post 3.23 EPS for the current year.

IPG Photonics declared that its board has initiated a share buyback program on Tuesday, February 13th that permits the company to buyback $300.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the semiconductor company to repurchase up to 7.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

About IPG Photonics

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.