Lumentum (NASDAQ:LITE) Upgraded to “Strong-Buy” at Raymond James

Lumentum (NASDAQ:LITE) was upgraded by analysts at Raymond James from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report issued on Monday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a $82.00 price target on the technology company’s stock, down from their previous price target of $96.00. Raymond James’ price target would suggest a potential upside of 23.10% from the company’s previous close.

Other analysts have also issued research reports about the company. UBS Group raised their price target on Lumentum from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $110.00 target price on shares of Lumentum in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Barclays raised shares of Lumentum from an “underweight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $80.00 to $125.00 in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Lumentum from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on Lumentum in a report on Friday, February 21st. They set a “buy” rating on the stock. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Lumentum presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $87.40.

Lumentum Price Performance

Shares of Lumentum stock opened at $66.61 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $4.61 billion, a PE ratio of -8.66 and a beta of 1.03. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $77.36 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $75.77. The company has a quick ratio of 3.60, a current ratio of 4.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.94. Lumentum has a 12-month low of $38.29 and a 12-month high of $104.00.

Lumentum (NASDAQ:LITE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The technology company reported ($0.14) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.27 by ($0.41). Lumentum had a negative net margin of 36.98% and a negative return on equity of 7.25%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Lumentum will post 0.03 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Lumentum

In other Lumentum news, CFO Wajid Ali sold 2,172 shares of Lumentum stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $78.34, for a total transaction of $170,154.48. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 51,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,071,799.84. The trade was a 4.01 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Lumentum

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in Lumentum by 108.3% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 3,600,132 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $302,231,000 after buying an additional 1,871,572 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Lumentum in the fourth quarter valued at about $68,962,000. Nuveen Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Lumentum by 98.9% in the fourth quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 1,228,371 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $103,122,000 after acquiring an additional 610,938 shares during the period. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. grew its position in shares of Lumentum by 419.1% during the fourth quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 444,147 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $37,286,000 after purchasing an additional 583,330 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors purchased a new stake in shares of Lumentum during the fourth quarter worth about $42,415,000. 94.05% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Lumentum

Lumentum Holdings Inc manufactures and sells optical and photonic products in the Americas, the Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The company operates through two segments: Optical Communications (OpComms) and Commercial Lasers (Lasers). The OpComms segment offers components, modules, and subsystems that enable the transmission and transport of video, audio, and data over high-capacity fiber optic cables.