Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI) Trading 3.6% Higher

Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI)’s stock price shot up 3.6% during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $176.67 and last traded at $176.67. 53,837 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 65% from the average session volume of 153,005 shares. The stock had previously closed at $170.47.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently commented on NVMI. Benchmark upped their target price on Nova from $150.00 to $187.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. Evercore ISI began coverage on Nova in a report on Tuesday. They set an “outperform” rating and a $210.00 target price for the company. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $170.67.

Nova Stock Down 3.3 %

The stock has a market capitalization of $4.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.75, a P/E/G ratio of 6.67 and a beta of 1.41. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $172.35 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $140.35.

Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 15th. The semiconductor company reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.07 by $0.14. Nova had a return on equity of 20.55% and a net margin of 26.32%. The company had revenue of $134.22 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $128.00 million. On average, analysts forecast that Nova Ltd. will post 4.87 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Nova

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. LPL Financial LLC raised its stake in Nova by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 7,687 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $864,000 after purchasing an additional 98 shares during the period. Creative Planning increased its stake in shares of Nova by 3.7% in the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 3,215 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $285,000 after acquiring an additional 114 shares during the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC increased its stake in shares of Nova by 20.6% in the third quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 672 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $76,000 after acquiring an additional 115 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in Nova by 2.8% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,308 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $367,000 after buying an additional 119 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Nova by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 23,591 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,926,000 after buying an additional 120 shares during the last quarter. 82.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Nova Company Profile

Nova Ltd. designs, develops, produces, and sells process control systems used in the manufacture of semiconductors in Israel, Taiwan, the United States, China, Korea, and internationally. Its product portfolio includes a set of metrology platforms for dimensional, films, and materials and chemical metrology measurements for process control for various semiconductor manufacturing process steps, including lithography, etch, chemical mechanical planarization, deposition, electrochemical plating, and advanced packaging.