Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI) Shares Gap Up to $200.62

Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI) gapped up prior to trading on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $200.62, but opened at $215.98. Nova shares last traded at $214.98, with a volume of 87,374 shares trading hands.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Citigroup lowered Nova from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $273.00 to $224.00 in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Benchmark increased their price objective on shares of Nova from $215.00 to $240.00 and gave the company 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 given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $226.80.

Nova Price Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $6.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 48.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 1.46. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $208.38 and its 200 day simple moving average is $203.19.

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

Institutional Trading of Nova

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in NVMI. Employees Retirement System of Texas acquired a new position in Nova during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $68,000. FSC Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Nova in the second quarter worth $79,000. Signaturefd LLC boosted its position in shares of Nova by 15.9% during the 2nd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 767 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $180,000 after purchasing an additional 105 shares in the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Nova by 46.2% during the 1st quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 1,038 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $184,000 after purchasing an additional 328 shares in the last quarter. Finally, OLD National Bancorp IN acquired a new position in shares of Nova during the 2nd quarter worth $205,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.99% of the company’s stock.

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.