logo
nLIGHT (NASDAQ:LASR) Surprises With Strong Q1, Stock Jumps 16.3%

nLIGHT (NASDAQ:LASR) Surprises With Strong Q1, Stock Jumps 16.3%

Yahoo08-05-2025

Laser company nLIGHT (NASDAQ:LASR) reported Q1 CY2025 results exceeding the market's revenue expectations , with sales up 16% year on year to $51.67 million. On top of that, next quarter's revenue guidance ($56 million at the midpoint) was surprisingly good and 11.7% above what analysts were expecting. Its non-GAAP loss of $0.04 per share was 78.7% above analysts' consensus estimates.
Is now the time to buy nLIGHT? Find out in our full research report.
Revenue: $51.67 million vs analyst estimates of $47.34 million (16% year-on-year growth, 9.1% beat)
Adjusted EPS: -$0.04 vs analyst estimates of -$0.19 (78.7% beat)
Adjusted EBITDA: $116,000 vs analyst estimates of -$5.14 million (0.2% margin, significant beat)
Revenue Guidance for Q2 CY2025 is $56 million at the midpoint, above analyst estimates of $50.15 million
EBITDA guidance for the full year is -$1.5 million at the midpoint, above analyst estimates of -$11.98 million
Operating Margin: -18.6%, up from -33.1% in the same quarter last year
Free Cash Flow was -$2.30 million, down from $9.82 million in the same quarter last year
Market Capitalization: $425.7 million
Founded by a former CEO and Harvard-educated entrepreneur Scott Keeneyn, nLIGHT (NASDAQ:LASR) offers semiconductor and fiber lasers to the industrial, aerospace & defense, and medical sectors.
A company's long-term performance is an indicator of its overall quality. Any business can have short-term success, but a top-tier one grows for years. Unfortunately, nLIGHT's 2.9% annualized revenue growth over the last five years was sluggish. This fell short of our benchmarks and is a rough starting point for our analysis.
Long-term growth is the most important, but within industrials, a half-decade historical view may miss new industry trends or demand cycles. nLIGHT's performance shows it grew in the past but relinquished its gains over the last two years, as its revenue fell by 5.8% annually. nLIGHT isn't alone in its struggles as the Electronic Components industry experienced a cyclical downturn, with many similar businesses observing lower sales at this time.
We can better understand the company's revenue dynamics by analyzing its most important segments, Laser Products and Advanced Developments, which are 69.1% and 30.9% of revenue. Over the last two years, nLIGHT's Laser Products revenue (lasers, amplifiers, and directed energy products) averaged 10.4% year-on-year declines. On the other hand, its Advanced Developments revenue (R&D contracts) averaged 13.4% growth.
This quarter, nLIGHT reported year-on-year revenue growth of 16%, and its $51.67 million of revenue exceeded Wall Street's estimates by 9.1%. Company management is currently guiding for a 10.9% year-on-year increase in sales next quarter.
Looking further ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to grow 4.3% over the next 12 months. While this projection implies its newer products and services will catalyze better top-line performance, it is still below average for the sector.
Today's young investors likely haven't read the timeless lessons in Gorilla Game: Picking Winners In High Technology because it was written more than 20 years ago when Microsoft and Apple were first establishing their supremacy. But if we apply the same principles, then enterprise software stocks leveraging their own generative AI capabilities may well be the Gorillas of the future. So, in that spirit, we are excited to present our Special Free Report on a profitable, fast-growing enterprise software stock that is already riding the automation wave and looking to catch the generative AI next.
Operating margin is one of the best measures of profitability because it tells us how much money a company takes home after procuring and manufacturing its products, marketing and selling those products, and most importantly, keeping them relevant through research and development.
nLIGHT's high expenses have contributed to an average operating margin of negative 19.2% over the last five years. Unprofitable industrials companies require extra attention because they could get caught swimming naked when the tide goes out. It's hard to trust that the business can endure a full cycle.
Analyzing the trend in its profitability, nLIGHT's operating margin decreased by 21.1 percentage points over the last five years. This raises questions about the company's expense base because its revenue growth should have given it leverage on its fixed costs, resulting in better economies of scale and profitability. nLIGHT's performance was poor no matter how you look at it - it shows that costs were rising and it couldn't pass them onto its customers.
This quarter, nLIGHT generated a negative 18.6% operating margin. The company's consistent lack of profits raise a flag.
We track the long-term change in earnings per share (EPS) for the same reason as long-term revenue growth. Compared to revenue, however, EPS highlights whether a company's growth is profitable.
nLIGHT's earnings losses deepened over the last five years as its EPS dropped 46.6% annually. We tend to steer our readers away from companies with falling EPS, where diminishing earnings could imply changing secular trends and preferences. If the tide turns unexpectedly, nLIGHT's low margin of safety could leave its stock price susceptible to large downswings.
Like with revenue, we analyze EPS over a shorter period to see if we are missing a change in the business.
For nLIGHT, its two-year annual EPS declines of 1.1% show it's still underperforming. These results were bad no matter how you slice the data.
In Q1, nLIGHT reported EPS at negative $0.04, up from negative $0.17 in the same quarter last year. This print easily cleared analysts' estimates, and shareholders should be content with the results. Over the next 12 months, Wall Street is optimistic. Analysts forecast nLIGHT's full-year EPS of negative $0.51 will reach break even.
We were impressed by how significantly nLIGHT blew past analysts' EPS expectations this quarter. We were also excited its EBITDA outperformed Wall Street's estimates by a wide margin. Zooming out, we think this was a good print with some key areas of upside. The stock traded up 16.3% to $10 immediately after reporting.
nLIGHT had an encouraging quarter, but one earnings result doesn't necessarily make the stock a buy. Let's see if this is a good investment. The latest quarter does matter, but not nearly as much as longer-term fundamentals and valuation, when deciding if the stock is a buy. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here, it's free.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Academic Publishers Sign AI Deals as Trump Cuts Research Funding
Academic Publishers Sign AI Deals as Trump Cuts Research Funding

Bloomberg

time22 minutes ago

  • Bloomberg

Academic Publishers Sign AI Deals as Trump Cuts Research Funding

Academic publishers are rushing to sign licensing deals with artificial intelligence companies, carving out a new revenue stream as US research funding cuts dim their outlook. Informa Plc 's Taylor & Francis signed a $10 million deal with Microsoft Corp. last year to provide the tech giant access to part of its library to train large language models, or LLMs. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc is looking to 'monetize academic content through AI deals,' it said in its latest set of results, while John Wiley & Sons Inc. announced partnerships with Amazon Web Services and Perplexity earlier this year.

Corrado Garibaldi: The Contrarian Trader Who Profits When Others Panic
Corrado Garibaldi: The Contrarian Trader Who Profits When Others Panic

Time Business News

time28 minutes ago

  • Time Business News

Corrado Garibaldi: The Contrarian Trader Who Profits When Others Panic

In the high-stakes world of Trading Invest Celebrity Italy, where herd mentality often leads to costly mistakes, one investor has built his success on a simple but ruthless principle: When others zig, zag. Corrado Garibaldi—better known in finance circles as Lord Conrad—has carved a reputation as a maverick trader who thrives on going against the grain. His mantra? 'Buy the fear. Sell the euphoria.' The Unconventional Path to Trading Mastery Unlike Wall Street's typical Ivy League-educated financiers, Garibaldi is a self-made trader with no formal finance background. An Italian native, he entered the markets out of necessity, driven by a desire to take control of his financial future. 'I never studied economics or attended business school,' he admits. 'I learned by doing—making mistakes, refining strategies, and realizing that most people lose money because they follow the crowd.' The Contrarian Edge: Why 99.9999% of Traders Are Wrong Garibaldi's core philosophy is rooted in contrarian investing—a strategy that capitalizes on market overreactions. 'When everyone is buying, I'm selling. When panic sets in, I'm buying,' he says. 'The masses are almost always wrong at extremes. That's where the real opportunities lie.' This approach has allowed him to profit from major market swings, whether during the crypto crashes of 2022 or the AI stock frenzy of 2024. Two Sides of the Same Coin: Trader by Day, Investor by Night Garibaldi operates in two distinct modes: As a trader, he's a speed-focused tactician, scalping the Nasdaq and executing swing trades with military precision. As an investor, he's a patient wealth-builder, holding long-term positions in giants like Apple, Microsoft, and Tesla while diversifying into bonds and crypto. His portfolio strategy? 99% long-term holdings, 1% high-octane trading—a balance that maximizes growth while keeping risk in check. The Trader's Mindset: Why Psychology Beats IQ For Garibaldi, trading isn't just about charts—it's about mastering fear and greed. 'Most traders fail because they let emotions drive decisions,' he says. 'The key is to stay mechanical. Follow the plan, not the panic.' He enforces strict rules: ✔ Never risk more than 1% on a single trade ✔ Always use stop-losses ✔ Ignore hype—trade the data, not the narrative 2025 and Beyond: Adapt or Die In an era of AI-driven markets and geopolitical volatility, Garibaldi remains agile—constantly refining strategies and engaging with traders worldwide via social media. 'Markets change. If you're not learning, you're losing,' he warns. Final Word: The Slow Road to Trading Success For aspiring traders, Garibaldi's advice is refreshingly honest: 'This isn't a get-rich-quick game. Consistency beats luck. Small, smart gains compound over time—that's how real wealth is built.' Want to see his strategies in action? Visit Trading Invest Celebrity Italy. TIME BUSINESS NEWS

Virtu Financial Announces Strategic TradeOPS Collaboration, Welcoming First Joint Client
Virtu Financial Announces Strategic TradeOPS Collaboration, Welcoming First Joint Client

Yahoo

time37 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

Virtu Financial Announces Strategic TradeOPS Collaboration, Welcoming First Joint Client

STOCKHOLM and NEW YORK, June 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Virtu Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ: VIRT), a global leader in trading and execution services, and Limina, a leading provider of cloud-native Investment Management Solutions, are proud to announce a strategic collaboration around Virtu's TradeOPS platform. Virtu's TradeOPS is a streamlined, consolidated platform that covers clients' matching, settlements and payment requirements. Designed and built specifically to automate post-trade workflows, including allocation matching and settlements, exception-based processing in TradeOPS is designed to significantly reduce settlement delays, financial penalties, and workload for buyside firms. Combined with Limina's cloud-native Order and Portfolio Management System (O/PMS), this collaboration enables buyside firms to access a fully-integrated, front-to-back workflow—seamlessly and efficiently. The collaboration has welcomed its first joint client, Cliens, who is now benefiting from Virtu's TradeOPS capabilities using DTCC-CTM via Limina's platform. 'We're excited to work with Limina to deliver an integrated and modern workflow for our TradeOPS clients,' said Pegah Esmaeili, Head of Nordic Region at Virtu. 'This integration supports our mission to deliver scalable, outsourced trading solutions by collaborating with innovative local firms like Limina—allowing us to efficiently extend our market-leading products to clients across the region.' Prem Balasubramanian, Head of Virtu's TradeOPS platform highlighted that recent changes in post-trade settlement, such as the shift to T+1 and the migration from SWIFT MT to MX, have introduced new operational challenges for buyside firms. 'By providing streamlined and effective solutions tailored to clients' needs, we can significantly reduce the operational burden and allow firms to refocus on what truly matters: managing investments and driving performance.' Prem also added, 'Working with Limina is a pleasure. The turnaround has been impressively fast, and we're looking forward to continued collaboration ahead.' "This partnership was an obvious choice to further strengthen the integration capabilities of Limina's Order Management System, not only to DTCC CTM but to all venues that tie into Virtu TradeOPS including SWIFT and more," says Kristoffer Fürst, CEO of Limina. 'The integrated solution that Virtu and Limina offer Cliens helps us extend our straight-through process, giving time to more productive tasks which adds value to our customer,' says Martin Öqvist, CEO of Cliens. About Virtu Financial, is a leading financial services firm that leverages cutting-edge technology to provide execution services and data, analytics and connectivity products to its clients and deliver liquidity to the global markets. Leveraging its global market making expertise and infrastructure, Virtu provides a robust product suite including offerings in execution, liquidity sourcing, analytics and broker-neutral, multi-dealer platforms in workflow technology. Virtu's product offerings allow clients to trade on hundreds of venues across 50+ countries and in multiple asset classes, including global equities, ETFs, foreign exchange, futures, fixed income and myriad other commodities. In addition, Virtu's integrated, multi-asset analytics platform provides a range of pre- and post-trade services, data products and compliance tools that clients rely upon to invest, trade and manage risk across global markets. About LiminaLimina's modern Investment Management Platform helps investment managers increase productivity, decrease cost and manage operational risks through a unified platform spanning the entire investment lifecycle. Founded in 2014, and headquartered in Sweden, Limina serves a growing global client base of institutional asset managers, asset owners and hedge funds with our award-winning cloud-native SaaS offering. About CliensCliens is a Swedish active fund manager focusing on delivering long-term high returns. Our funds and discretionary mandates vary from equity to fixed income and investments are made in Swedish all caps as well as Nordic and Global small caps. Contact: Investor Relations and Media RelationsAndrew Smithmedia@ in to access your portfolio

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store