Nova’s (NVMI) Hold Rating Reaffirmed at Needham & Company LLC

Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI)‘s stock had its “hold” rating reiterated by analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a report released on Friday,Benzinga reports.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Benchmark upped their price target on Nova from $215.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. Citigroup cut Nova from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $273.00 to $224.00 in a report on Monday, September 16th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $226.80.

Nova Stock Performance

NVMI opened at $206.37 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $198.83 and a 200 day moving average price of $207.60. The company has a market cap of $5.99 billion, a PE ratio of 42.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 1.47. Nova has a 1 year low of $100.17 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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.18 by $0.43. The firm 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%. Nova’s quarterly revenue was up 27.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.97 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Nova will post 5.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Nova

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Employees Retirement System of Texas purchased a new position in shares of Nova during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $68,000. FSC Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Nova during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $79,000. Signaturefd LLC boosted its stake in shares of Nova by 15.9% during the 2nd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 767 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $180,000 after buying an additional 105 shares during the last quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN purchased a new position in shares of Nova during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $205,000. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company purchased a new position in shares of Nova during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $211,000. 82.99% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.