Luminar Acquires OptoGration; Shares Fall

Autonomous vehicle sensor and software company Luminar Technologies, Inc. (LAZR) announced that it has acquired its exclusive InGaAs chip design partner and manufacturer OptoGration. The financial terms of the deal, which is likely to close in the third quarter, have been kept under wraps.

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Following the news, shares of the company declined 1.3% on Monday and closed at $17.98 in the extended trading session.

The buyout is expected to secure Luminar’s supply chain and enable further integration with its existing chip design subsidiary Black Forest Engineering.

Chief Technology Officer at Luminar Jason Eichenholz said, “The OptoGration team is unique in their ability to deliver photodetectors with the performance and quality that achieve our increasingly demanding requirements. Chip-level innovation and integration has been key to unlocking our performance and driving the substantial cost reductions we’ve achieved.” (See Luminar stock chart on TipRanks)

Recently, Robert W. Baird analyst Tristan Gerra upgraded the stock to a Buy. Notably, the analyst raised the price target from $22 to $30, which implies upside potential of 67.6% from current levels.

Gerra said, “Stock is poised to outperform peers this year as Luminar is well-positioned to upward-revise its order book and raise its medium-term revenue outlook, driven by standard adoption of L3 hardware in next-generation vehicles including with Volvo, and which suggests incrementally positive developments with other, already-announced design wins. Software-enabled L4 upgrades also represent a compelling value proposition. As Volvo and SAIC move forward, automotive OEMs seeking to catch up in highway autonomy technology could add up to Luminar’s already-impressive design win line up. Upgrading to Outperform.”

The Wall Street community is cautiously optimistic about the stock with a Moderate Buy consensus based on 4 Buys and 2 Holds. The average Luminar price target of $28.33 implies 58.3% upside potential from current levels.

Luminar scores a 9 out of 10 on TipRanks’ Smart Score rating system, indicating that the stock has strong potential to outperform market expectations. Shares have gained about 62.9% over the past year.