Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC Boosts Stock Position in Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI)

Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC lifted its stake in Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI) by 24.1% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 401 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after acquiring an additional 78 shares during the quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC’s holdings in Nova were worth $79,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Nova by 7.9% in the fourth quarter. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd now owns 1,383,339 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $272,517,000 after buying an additional 101,470 shares during the last quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Nova in the fourth quarter worth about $112,000. Tower View Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Nova by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Tower View Wealth Management LLC now owns 19,649 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $3,870,000 after buying an additional 214 shares during the last quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Nova by 111.9% in the fourth quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 15,296 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $3,013,000 after buying an additional 8,076 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in shares of Nova by 1,016.2% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 17,960 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $3,537,000 after buying an additional 16,351 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.99% of the company’s stock.

Nova Price Performance

Shares of Nova stock opened at $206.27 on Tuesday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $240.11 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $211.11. Nova Ltd. has a 12 month low of $158.00 and a 12 month high of $289.90. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.94, a PEG ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 1.46.

Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The semiconductor company reported $1.78 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by ($0.04). Nova had a net margin of 27.33% and a return on equity of 22.33%. The firm had revenue of $194.77 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $186.50 million. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Nova Ltd. will post 7.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on NVMI. Cantor Fitzgerald lowered their target price on Nova from $315.00 to $300.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Citigroup raised Nova from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $226.00 to $240.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Nova in a report on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Benchmark upped their price target on Nova from $245.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $250.83.

About Nova

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.