Morgan Stanley Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Lumentum (NASDAQ:LITE) Stock Price

Lumentum (NASDAQ:LITE) had its price objective dropped by equities research analysts at Morgan Stanley from $83.00 to $81.00 in a report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “equal weight” rating on the technology company’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price objective suggests a potential downside of 6.71% from the company’s previous close.

Other research analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Northland Securities lifted their target price on shares of Lumentum from $45.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 8th. Raymond James boosted their price objective on shares of Lumentum from $70.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 8th. Barclays upgraded Lumentum from an “underweight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the company from $80.00 to $125.00 in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $110.00 price target on shares of Lumentum in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities increased their price objective on Lumentum from $69.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Lumentum currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $81.77.

Lumentum Trading Up 11.4 %

NASDAQ:LITE opened at $86.83 on Friday. Lumentum has a one year low of $38.28 and a one year high of $104.00. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $87.56 and its 200 day simple moving average is $70.21. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.97 billion, a P/E ratio of -10.40 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.87, a current ratio of 5.36 and a quick ratio of 4.04.

Lumentum (NASDAQ:LITE) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The technology company reported ($0.35) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.13 by ($0.48). Lumentum had a negative return on equity of 6.79% and a negative net margin of 40.70%. The company had revenue of $336.90 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $326.94 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted ($0.10) earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Lumentum will post -0.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Wajid Ali sold 29,887 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.06, for a total value of $2,542,188.22. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 56,492 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,805,209.52. This represents a 34.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Penny Herscher sold 1,625 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.09, for a total transaction of $131,771.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,852 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $555,628.68. This represents a 19.17 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 101,797 shares of company stock valued at $8,881,428 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Lumentum

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in LITE. Atreides Management LP boosted its stake in Lumentum by 28.5% in the 3rd quarter. Atreides Management LP now owns 1,691,017 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $107,177,000 after purchasing an additional 375,389 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Lumentum by 1.3% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,186,163 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $75,198,000 after acquiring an additional 15,799 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Lumentum by 5.3% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 738,155 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $46,784,000 after acquiring an additional 37,109 shares in the last quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. lifted its stake in Lumentum by 50.4% in the 3rd quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. now owns 407,789 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $25,846,000 after purchasing an additional 136,659 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Emerald Advisers LLC lifted its stake in Lumentum by 29.1% in the 3rd quarter. Emerald Advisers LLC now owns 378,535 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $23,992,000 after purchasing an additional 85,353 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 94.05% of the company’s stock.

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.