Short Interest in Luminar Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:LAZR) Decreases By 18.6%

Luminar Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:LAZR) was the recipient of a large decline in short interest during the month of January. As of January 15th, there was short interest totalling 6,020,000 shares, a decline of 18.6% from the December 31st total of 7,400,000 shares. Approximately 23.3% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 2,920,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.1 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

LAZR has been the subject of a number of research reports. Craig Hallum reduced their price target on shares of Luminar Technologies from $22.50 to $15.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “neutral” rating and set a $30.00 price target on shares of Luminar Technologies in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on Luminar Technologies from $11.25 to $7.50 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Luminar Technologies has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $50.06.

Luminar Technologies Stock Up 1.7 %

NASDAQ LAZR traded up $0.09 on Thursday, reaching $5.34. The company had a trading volume of 442,371 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,063,921. Luminar Technologies has a 52 week low of $4.93 and a 52 week high of $45.68. The stock has a market cap of $177.92 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.40 and a beta of 1.60. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $6.97 and its 200-day moving average is $12.55.

Luminar Technologies (NASDAQ:LAZR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 11th. The company reported ($2.40) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($3.30) by $0.90. The firm had revenue of $15.49 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.70 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned ($4.95) EPS. Luminar Technologies’s quarterly revenue was down 8.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Luminar Technologies will post -14.2 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Luminar Technologies

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Entropy Technologies LP acquired a new position in Luminar Technologies during the fourth quarter worth $97,000. Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Luminar Technologies during the 3rd quarter worth about $316,000. Barclays PLC grew its holdings in shares of Luminar Technologies by 469.2% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 842,288 shares of the company’s stock valued at $757,000 after acquiring an additional 694,315 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Luminar Technologies by 17.9% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,774,934 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,896,000 after acquiring an additional 1,331,067 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LRI Investments LLC raised its holdings in Luminar Technologies by 32,352.8% during the third quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 162,264 shares of the company’s stock worth $146,000 after acquiring an additional 161,764 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 30.99% of the company’s stock.

About Luminar Technologies

Luminar Technologies, Inc, an automotive technology company, provides sensor technologies and software for passenger cars and commercial trucks in North America, the Asia Pacific, Europe, and the Middle East. It operates in two segments, Autonomy Solutions and Advanced Technologies and Services. The Autonomy Solutions segment designs, manufactures, and sells laser imaging, detection, and ranging sensors or lidars, as well as related perception and autonomy software solutions primarily for original equipment manufacturers in the automobile, commercial vehicle, robo-taxi, and adjacent industries.