Benchmark Trims IPG Photonics (NASDAQ:IPGP) Target Price to $106.00

IPG Photonics (NASDAQ:IPGP) had its target price decreased by Benchmark from $116.00 to $106.00 in a research note released on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. Benchmark currently has a buy rating on the semiconductor company’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on IPGP. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on shares of IPG Photonics from $130.00 to $115.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a hold rating on shares of IPG Photonics in a research report on Wednesday. Seaport Res Ptn restated a buy rating on shares of IPG Photonics in a report on Thursday, January 25th. StockNews.com cut shares of IPG Photonics from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Saturday, February 17th. Finally, Citigroup cut shares of IPG Photonics from a neutral rating to a sell rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $111.00 to $74.00 in a report on Thursday, February 15th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $110.40.

IPG Photonics Price Performance

Shares of IPGP stock opened at $86.76 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $87.69 and its two-hundred day moving average is $93.97. IPG Photonics has a 12 month low of $80.33 and a 12 month high of $141.85. The company has a market capitalization of $3.95 billion, a PE ratio of 22.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 16.87 and a beta of 1.17.

IPG Photonics (NASDAQ:IPGP) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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 net margin of 15.34% and a return on equity of 7.67%. The business had revenue of $252.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $255.53 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.26 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 27.4% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that IPG Photonics will post 3.17 EPS for the current year.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other IPG Photonics news, Director Eric Meurice sold 788 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.30, for a total transaction of $70,368.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 16,491 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,472,646.30. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, Director Eric Meurice sold 788 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.30, for a total transaction of $70,368.40. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 16,491 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,472,646.30. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, major shareholder Valentin Gapontsev Trust I sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.68, for a total transaction of $856,800.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 7,219,599 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $618,575,242.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 29,788 shares of company stock worth $2,595,508 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 37.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of IPG Photonics

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of IPGP. CWM LLC raised its position in IPG Photonics by 123.8% in the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 837 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $85,000 after purchasing an additional 463 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates purchased a new stake in IPG Photonics in the 3rd quarter valued at $314,000. Ardevora Asset Management LLP raised its position in IPG Photonics by 19.6% in the 3rd quarter. Ardevora Asset Management LLP now owns 172,038 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $17,469,000 after purchasing an additional 28,238 shares during the last quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC raised its position in IPG Photonics by 4.8% in the 3rd quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 3,264 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $331,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank raised its position in IPG Photonics by 7.8% in the 3rd quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 6,417 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $652,000 after purchasing an additional 462 shares during the last quarter. 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.