Employees Retirement System of Texas Makes New $68,000 Investment in Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI)

Employees Retirement System of Texas purchased a new position in Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 288 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $68,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Y.D. More Investments Ltd grew its position in shares of Nova by 2,733.2% during the second quarter. Y.D. More Investments Ltd now owns 288,986 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $67,510,000 after purchasing an additional 278,786 shares in the last quarter. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd grew its position in shares of Nova by 74.9% during the fourth quarter. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd now owns 604,977 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $83,202,000 after purchasing an additional 259,021 shares in the last quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP purchased a new stake in shares of Nova during the first quarter worth about $38,661,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its position in shares of Nova by 45.2% during the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 645,203 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $151,319,000 after purchasing an additional 200,816 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Meitav Investment House Ltd. grew its position in shares of Nova by 28.1% during the second quarter. Meitav Investment House Ltd. now owns 556,839 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $130,258,000 after purchasing an additional 122,218 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.99% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently issued reports on NVMI shares. Citigroup cut Nova from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $273.00 to $224.00 in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Benchmark increased their target price on Nova from $215.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $226.80.

Nova Price Performance

NASDAQ NVMI opened at $211.79 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.15 billion, a PE ratio of 48.80, a P/E/G ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 1.46. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $208.38 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $203.19. Nova Ltd. has a 1-year low of $90.59 and a 1-year high of $247.21.

Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The semiconductor company reported $1.61 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.18 by $0.43. The business had revenue of $156.86 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $148.12 million. Nova had a return on equity of 20.76% and a net margin of 27.38%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 27.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.97 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Nova Ltd. will post 5.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Nova 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.