nLight has pivoted from industrial lasers to a lean, high-margin defense play, with high risk and high reward. It is a core winner in high-energy laser defense, where its HELSI-2 prototype-to-production work drove record FY2025 revenue of $261 million, up 31%. It raised about $200 million in February 2026 to expand aerospace and defense capacity, cutting reliance on the cyclical industrial market. x.com 

LightPath Technologies trades at 6.3x FY2027 analyst revenue, half nLIGHT's 13x on essentially the same small-cap defense photonics setup. NDAA Section 834 requires the Pentagon to drop optical glass from China, Russia and others by 2030, and LightPath holds the only US chalcogenide glass licensed from the Naval Research Laboratory. After Q3 revenue rose 109%, analysts lifted FY2027 revenue 27% to $106M. Risks include G5 earnout charges, a $200M shelf and a plant in China. x.com  x.com 

Electro Optic Systems benefits from being free of ITAR export controls, while those controls are hurting nLIGHT. nLIGHT could be doing a lot better. x.com 

nLIGHT's opportunities are huge, but supply-chain problems could last longer than the market prices in, so it is only worth adding on a significant drop. Weapons restocking should help its laser sensing business, and a new JLWS award brings $44M in 2026 with a $627M ceiling. But Q3 guidance is much weaker because China is holding optical components in customs, which the CEO called political football. At a rich multiple, it could languish in the $40s until the next big win. x.com  x.com  x.com  … Show more

Laser defense is arriving as regulators approve it, and nLIGHT is the US pure play on that shift. The FAA has greenlit laser sentry guns against attack drones in US airspace, per @zerohedge. nLIGHT is developing lasers up to 1MW, the strongest in development, at only about a $3.5B market cap, while AeroVironment, despite its Locust system, is too diversified for laser exposure. x.com 

Electro Optic Systems trades at about 2x backlog versus about 28x for nLight, despite growing faster at higher margins. Q1 cash receipts rose 220% to A$72.6M versus nLight's 55% revenue growth, gross margin is 63% versus 33%, and its A$726M backlog, 60-80% expected to convert in 2026-27, is 4.5x larger. After buying MARSS it owns the full counter-drone kill chain, its ITAR-free lasers are winning exports, and management guides to first profit in 2026. The chart is near a breakout above $9.60. … Show more

nLIGHT sits in the hot fiber-optics space, is nearly profitable and posted triple-digit EPS growth last year. All analysts rate it a strong buy, with an $88 target. x.com 

nLIGHT's aerospace and defense business is booming, which made this a great report. The caveat is longer term: revenue growth will slow as it divests one of its two slow-growth or shrinking business lines, and algorithms may punish the shares after the Q3 or Q4 report, a problem for October 2026 or early 2027. x.com 

Laser weapon makers nLIGHT and Electro Optic Systems look increasingly mispriced every day the war continues, because they are the West's answer to asymmetric warfare with no legit competitors at low-billion market caps. Per @KawzInvests, the US spends $2 million per Patriot interceptor against $2,000 Iranian drones while a laser shot costs $10; nLIGHT is the only US-listed pure-play directed-energy stock, with a $171M Golden Dome contract, and EOS has the only ITAR-free 100kW laser weapon. … Show more

EnerSys looks mispriced at about 15x forward earnings versus 23-31x for electrical equipment peers like nVent, Eaton and Hubbell riding the same AI power demand. It has beaten earnings 10 straight times, generated about $717M of free cash flow in 12 months, a near 10% yield, and lifted gross margin over 500 bps to 33.5%. Data center orders rose over 80% and defense revenue 24%. A third of adjusted earnings comes from a US tax credit that phases down after 2030; forklift batteries remain soft. … Show more