Novanta (NASDAQ:NOVT) Reaches New 12-Month Low Following Analyst Downgrade

Novanta Inc. (NASDAQ:NOVT)’s stock price reached a new 52-week low during mid-day trading on Tuesday after Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on the stock from $169.00 to $160.00. Robert W. Baird currently has a neutral rating on the stock. Novanta traded as low as $136.02 and last traded at $139.83, with a volume of 300155 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $143.37.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Novanta

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in NOVT. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Novanta during the fourth quarter valued at $48,442,000. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Novanta by 69.9% during the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 680,169 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $103,910,000 after buying an additional 279,793 shares during the period. WCM Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in Novanta during the fourth quarter valued at $15,104,000. Schroder Investment Management Group boosted its stake in Novanta by 52.5% during the fourth quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 271,583 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $41,359,000 after buying an additional 93,511 shares during the period. Finally, Millennium Management LLC lifted its stake in Novanta by 2,714.7% during the fourth quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 88,297 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $13,489,000 after purchasing an additional 85,160 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.35% of the company’s stock.

Novanta Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 2.79 and a quick ratio of 1.81. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $148.13 and a 200-day simple moving average of $163.68. The stock has a market cap of $5.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 83.73 and a beta of 1.34.

Novanta (NASDAQ:NOVT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The technology company reported $0.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.71 by $0.05. Novanta had a return on equity of 15.20% and a net margin of 6.52%. The firm had revenue of $238.10 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $240.29 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.63 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 12.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Novanta Inc. will post 3.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Novanta

Novanta, Inc engages in the provision of core technology solutions to healthcare and advanced industrial original equipment manufacturers. It operates through the following segments: Photonics, Vision, and Precision Motion. The Photonics segment designs, manufactures, and markets photonics-based solutions, including laser scanning and laser beam delivery, CO2 laser, continuous wave and ultrafast laser, and optical light engine products.