Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI) Hits New 12-Month High at $244.97

Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $244.97 and last traded at $244.28, with a volume of 43998 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $238.53.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NVMI has been the subject of several research reports. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Nova from $190.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 10th. Benchmark upped their price target on shares of Nova from $187.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 10th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Nova in a research report on Friday, May 10th. Evercore ISI began coverage on shares of Nova in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $210.00 price target for the company. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of Nova in a research report on Monday, May 13th. They set a “buy” rating and a $240.00 price target for the company. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Nova has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $221.25.

Nova Stock Up 2.0 %

The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $213.13 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $178.25. The company has a market capitalization of $7.07 billion, a PE ratio of 54.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.47.

Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 9th. The semiconductor company reported $1.39 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.10 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $141.80 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $136.78 million. Nova had a net margin of 26.26% and a return on equity of 19.89%. Nova’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.12 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Nova Ltd. will post 4.79 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Nova

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of NVMI. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd raised its stake in Nova by 74.9% in the fourth quarter. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd now owns 604,977 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $83,202,000 after buying an additional 259,021 shares in the last quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP bought a new position in Nova in the first quarter worth about $38,661,000. Grandeur Peak Global Advisors LLC bought a new position in Nova in the first quarter worth about $15,195,000. Carmignac Gestion bought a new position in Nova in the fourth quarter worth about $11,638,000. Finally, Capital World Investors raised its stake in Nova by 22.3% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 450,868 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $79,975,000 after buying an additional 82,322 shares in the last quarter. 82.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.