Onto Innovation Inc. (NYSE:ONTO) Short Interest Up 23.8% in February

Onto Innovation Inc. (NYSE:ONTO) was the target of a significant increase in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 1,510,000 shares, an increase of 23.8% from the February 13th total of 1,220,000 shares. Currently, 3.1% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 933,700 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.6 days.

Onto Innovation Trading Up 0.6 %

NYSE ONTO opened at $135.84 on Wednesday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $175.14 and its 200-day simple moving average is $181.77. Onto Innovation has a 52 week low of $121.47 and a 52 week high of $238.93. The stock has a market cap of $6.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.47, a PEG ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.29.

Onto Innovation (NYSE:ONTO) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The semiconductor company reported $1.51 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.41 by $0.10. Onto Innovation had a net margin of 20.43% and a return on equity of 14.24%. On average, research analysts expect that Onto Innovation will post 6.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Onto Innovation

In other news, CEO Michael P. Plisinski sold 20,000 shares of Onto Innovation stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $200.19, for a total transaction of $4,003,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 215,492 shares in the company, valued at $43,139,343.48. The trade was a 8.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Srinivas Vedula sold 827 shares of Onto Innovation stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $205.00, for a total transaction of $169,535.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 15,223 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,120,715. This trade represents a 5.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 85,827 shares of company stock worth $18,182,185 over the last ninety days. 0.72% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Onto Innovation

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Cerity Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Onto Innovation by 287.0% in the third quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 4,663 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $968,000 after buying an additional 3,458 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Onto Innovation by 1.6% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 834,345 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $173,401,000 after buying an additional 13,405 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in shares of Onto Innovation by 12.9% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,008,399 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $416,863,000 after buying an additional 228,800 shares during the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Onto Innovation by 72.0% in the third quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 10,184 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $2,095,000 after buying an additional 4,263 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC increased its stake in shares of Onto Innovation by 1,296.7% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 217,190 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $45,079,000 after buying an additional 201,640 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.35% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on ONTO shares. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $250.00 target price on shares of Onto Innovation in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Oppenheimer decreased their target price on shares of Onto Innovation from $275.00 to $240.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. StockNews.com raised shares of Onto Innovation from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on shares of Onto Innovation from $270.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $230.00 price target on shares of Onto Innovation in a research report on Friday, February 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $246.88.

About Onto Innovation

Onto Innovation Inc engages in the design, development, manufacture, and support of process control tools that performs optical metrology. The company offers lithography systems and process control analytical software. It also offers process and yield management solutions, and device packaging and test facilities through standalone systems for optical metrology, macro-defect inspection, packaging lithography, and transparent and opaque thin film measurements.