Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI) Shares Gap Down After Analyst Downgrade

Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI)’s stock price gapped down before the market opened on Monday after Cantor Fitzgerald lowered their price target on the stock from $315.00 to $300.00. The stock had previously closed at $219.13, but opened at $212.84. Cantor Fitzgerald currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Nova shares last traded at $211.29, with a volume of 32,684 shares traded.

A number of other brokerages have also recently weighed in on NVMI. Benchmark boosted their price objective on Nova from $245.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Citigroup upgraded shares of Nova from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $226.00 to $240.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Nova in a research note on Friday, February 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Nova currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $250.83.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Nova

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Quarry LP increased its stake in Nova by 438.5% in the 3rd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 140 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 114 shares during the period. Advisors Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Nova by 89.7% in the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 165 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 78 shares in the last quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC increased its stake in shares of Nova by 24.1% during the fourth quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 401 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $79,000 after acquiring an additional 78 shares during the period. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in Nova during the fourth quarter worth about $112,000. Finally, Quadrant Capital Group LLC lifted its position in Nova by 5.2% in the fourth quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 1,030 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $203,000 after purchasing an additional 51 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.99% of the company’s stock.

Nova Trading Down 3.9 %

The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $239.74 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $210.93. The company has a market cap of $5.80 billion, a PE ratio of 34.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 1.46.

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

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.