Jefferies Financial Group Begins Coverage on Lumentum (NASDAQ:LITE)

Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of Lumentum (NASDAQ:LITE) in a report issued on Friday. The brokerage set a “buy” rating on the technology company’s stock.

Other analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Northland Securities increased their price target on Lumentum from $60.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Barclays raised shares of Lumentum from an “underweight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $80.00 to $125.00 in a report on Friday, January 17th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $110.00 price objective on shares of Lumentum in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on shares of Lumentum from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, B. Riley raised their price objective on Lumentum from $62.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $88.07.

Lumentum Stock Performance

NASDAQ LITE traded up $2.37 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $78.71. The company had a trading volume of 82,653 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,346,691. The business has a 50 day moving average of $85.61 and a 200-day moving average of $73.24. The company has a market cap of $5.45 billion, a PE ratio of -10.26 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.94, a quick ratio of 3.60 and a current ratio of 4.76. Lumentum has a 1-year low of $38.28 and a 1-year high of $104.00.

Lumentum (NASDAQ:LITE) last issued its 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 research analysts expect that Lumentum will post 0.03 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Lumentum

In other news, insider Vincent Retort sold 41,710 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.52, for a total value of $3,733,879.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 147,515 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,205,542.80. This represents a 22.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Wajid Ali sold 29,887 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.06, for a total transaction of $2,542,188.22. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 56,492 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,805,209.52. This trade represents a 34.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 73,769 shares of company stock worth $6,446,222. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in LITE. Capital World Investors grew its holdings in Lumentum by 108.3% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 3,600,132 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $302,231,000 after purchasing an additional 1,871,572 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Lumentum in the 4th quarter worth approximately $68,962,000. Nuveen Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Lumentum by 98.9% during 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 in the last quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. lifted its stake in shares of Lumentum by 419.1% in the fourth quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 444,147 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $37,286,000 after buying an additional 583,330 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors purchased a new position in shares of Lumentum during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $42,415,000. 94.05% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Lumentum Company Profile

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.