Citigroup Cuts IPG Photonics (NASDAQ:IPGP) Price Target to $68.00

IPG Photonics (NASDAQ:IPGP) had its target price trimmed by Citigroup from $74.00 to $68.00 in a research note published on Thursday morning, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a sell rating on the semiconductor company’s stock.

Other analysts have also issued research reports about the company. StockNews.com lowered 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 research report on Thursday, January 25th. Needham & Company LLC restated a hold rating on shares of IPG Photonics in a report on Wednesday. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on shares of IPG Photonics from $130.00 to $115.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, Benchmark lowered their price objective on shares of IPG Photonics from $116.00 to $106.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $110.40.

IPG Photonics Trading Up 0.1 %

NASDAQ IPGP traded up $0.06 on Thursday, hitting $86.76. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 253,550 shares, compared to its average volume of 230,527. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $87.69 and its 200 day simple moving average is $93.97. The firm has a market cap of $3.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.36, a PEG ratio of 19.80 and a beta of 1.17. IPG Photonics has a 52-week low of $80.33 and a 52-week high of $141.85.

IPG Photonics (NASDAQ:IPGP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 30th. The semiconductor company reported $0.52 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.04. IPG Photonics had a return on equity of 7.67% and a net margin of 15.34%. The company had revenue of $252.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $255.53 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.26 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 27.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that IPG Photonics will post 2.81 EPS for the current fiscal year.

IPG Photonics announced that its board has initiated a stock buyback program on Tuesday, February 13th that permits the company to repurchase $300.00 million in outstanding 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 often an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at IPG Photonics

In other IPG Photonics news, major shareholder Valentin Gapontsev Trust I sold 10,000 shares of IPG Photonics stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.56, for a total transaction 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other IPG Photonics news, major shareholder Valentin Gapontsev Trust I sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.56, for a total value of $895,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 7,209,599 shares in the company, valued at $645,691,686.44. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Eric Meurice sold 788 shares of IPG Photonics stock in a transaction on Monday, April 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.30, for a total value of $70,368.40. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 16,491 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,472,646.30. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 29,788 shares of company stock valued at $2,595,508. 37.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Raymond James & Associates grew its position in shares of IPG Photonics by 1,349.8% during the fourth quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 44,887 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $4,872,000 after buying an additional 41,791 shares in the last quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC raised its holdings in IPG Photonics by 2,136.2% during the third 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 in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its holdings in IPG Photonics by 70.7% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 56,965 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $6,183,000 after acquiring an additional 23,595 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of IPG Photonics by 2.9% in 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 last quarter. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new stake in shares of IPG Photonics during the 3rd quarter valued at $960,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.79% of the company’s stock.

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.