The nLIGHT (NASDAQ:LASR) Share Price Has Gained 121%, So Why Not Pay It Some Attention?

Unfortunately, investing is risky - companies can and do go bankrupt. On the other hand, if you find a high quality business to buy (at the right price) you can more than double your money! For example, the nLIGHT, Inc. (NASDAQ:LASR) share price has soared 121% return in just a single year. But it's down 8.6% in the last week. But this could be related to the soft market, with stocks selling off around 2.4% in the last week. We'll need to follow nLIGHT for a while to get a better sense of its share price trend, since it hasn't been listed for particularly long.

View our latest analysis for nLIGHT

Given that nLIGHT didn't make a profit in the last twelve months, we'll focus on revenue growth to form a quick view of its business development. When a company doesn't make profits, we'd generally expect to see good revenue growth. That's because fast revenue growth can be easily extrapolated to forecast profits, often of considerable size.

In the last year nLIGHT saw its revenue grow by 26%. We respect that sort of growth, no doubt. While that revenue growth is pretty good the share price performance outshone it, with a lift of 121% as mentioned above. If the profitability is on the horizon then now could be a very exciting time to be a shareholder. But investors need to be wary of how the 'fear of missing out' could influence them to buy without doing thorough research.

You can see how earnings and revenue have changed over time in the image below (click on the chart to see the exact values).

nLIGHT is well known by investors, and plenty of clever analysts have tried to predict the future profit levels. You can see what analysts are predicting for nLIGHT in this interactive graph of future profit estimates.

A Different Perspective

It's nice to see that nLIGHT shareholders have gained 121% over the last year. The more recent returns haven't been as impressive as the longer term returns, coming in at just 0.9%. Having said that, we doubt shareholders would be concerned. It seems the market is simply waiting on more information, because if the business delivers so will the share price (eventually). I find it very interesting to look at share price over the long term as a proxy for business performance. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. Consider risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 2 warning signs for nLIGHT you should know about.

For those who like to find winning investments this free list of growing companies with recent insider purchasing, could be just the ticket.

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on US exchanges.

If you’re looking to trade nLIGHT, open an account with the lowest-cost* platform trusted by professionals, Interactive Brokers. Their clients from over 200 countries and territories trade stocks, options, futures, forex, bonds and funds worldwide from a single integrated account. Promoted

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
^*Interactive Brokers Rated Lowest Cost Broker by StockBrokers.com Annual Online Review 2020

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.