LAZR

What does Luminar Technologies do? 

Luminar Technologies helps machines see. The company develops lidar sensors and software for use in self-driving cars, commercial vehicles and adjacent markets across North America, the Asia Pacific, Europe, and the Middle East. Lidar works like radar, but using light instead of radio waves, which is much faster.

To keep drivers safe on roads, Luminar currently offers two flagship lidar products (Hydra and Iris), lidar software, a full-stack hardware and software solution in Sentinel and much more.

Because of these offerings, Luminar Technologies is a leading technology partner for many of the world’s top original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Orlando, Florida, Luminar Technologies is aiming to help the automotive industry “achieve widespread adoption of next-gen safety and highway autonomous features in all vehicles.”

How does Luminar Technologies make money?

While Luminar Technologies has not begun commerical operations, it earns revenue in two segments: Autonomy Solutions and Components.

Autonomy Solutions

This segment sees the design, manufacture, and sale of Luminar’s lidar sensors, perception and autonomy enabling software solutions. Revenue is earned from OEMs in the automobile, commercial vehicle and robo-taxi industries. It also caters to adjacent industries such as the aerospace, defense and aviation industries.

Luminar also earns revenue by charging fees for non-recurring customisations of their sensor and software products.

Components

This segment earns revenue by consulting with government agencies and defense customers to design, test and manufacture non-standard integrated circuits and components. These circuits and components are not used in autonomous vehicles.

Is Luminar Technologies a profitable company?

No, Luminar Technologies is not profitable at this time.

The company incurred net losses of US$238m, US$362.3m, and US$94.7m for FY2021, FY2020 and FY2019, respectively. The company also incurred a negative free cash flow of US$155m in FY2021.

As Luminar Technologies has not begun commercial operations, it has stated: 

“We believe that we will continue to incur operating and net losses each quarter until at least the time we begin commercial deliveries of our lidar-based products, which are not expected to begin until late 2022 or early 2023 and may occur later or not at all as we face challenges setting up outsourced manufacturing.”

Should I buy LAZR stock?

Since its February 2021 highs, the LAZR stock price has dropped almost 60% from over US$37 down to under US$12 in March 2022.

For many investors, sentiment has been negative due to the company’s lack of earnings. A broader technology sell-off through the first quarter of 2022 has also added fuel to the fire.

However, other investors see a long-term opportunity in LAZR’s price drop. They’re bullish on the application of lidar sensors in self-driving cars but also its practical uses in adjacent markets such as aerospace, defense and aviation. In December 2021, the company also announced a program to repurchase US$312.5m of stock.

Does LAZR stock have a short interest?

Yes, it does. As of 14 March 2022, LAZR’s short interest sits at 14.66% of its total float.

Who owns LAZR stock?

Founder Austin Russell owns the most at 27.83% of total LAZR stock. Co-founder and CTO Jason Eichenholz owns 1.15%.

LAZR is also held in large quantities by Vanguard Group (5.41%), GVA Capital (5.16%), Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, GIC (3.27%), G2 Venture Partners (3.03%) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (2.7%)

Billionaire businessman Alec Gores also owns 1.31%.