Citigroup Lowers Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI) to Neutral

Citigroup lowered shares of Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI) from a buy rating to a neutral rating in a research report sent to investors on Monday morning, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Citigroup currently has $224.00 price objective on the semiconductor company’s stock, down from their prior price objective of $273.00.

Separately, Benchmark boosted 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. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $226.80.

Nova Stock Down 1.2 %

NVMI stock opened at $192.34 on Monday. Nova has a twelve month low of $90.59 and a twelve month high of $247.21. The stock has a market cap of $5.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.32, a PEG ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 1.46. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $211.25 and its 200-day moving average price is $202.45.

Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 8th. The semiconductor company reported $1.61 earnings per share 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 firm had revenue of $156.86 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $148.12 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.97 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 27.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that Nova will post 5.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Nova

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Evergreen Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Nova by 5.0% during the 2nd quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC now owns 1,230 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $288,000 after acquiring an additional 59 shares in the last quarter. Vancity Investment Management Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Nova by 1.9% during the 1st quarter. Vancity Investment Management Ltd now owns 4,969 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $881,000 after acquiring an additional 95 shares in the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC raised its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 105 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc raised its holdings in shares of Nova by 3.4% during the 2nd quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 4,176 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $980,000 after acquiring an additional 136 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Creative Planning raised its holdings in Nova by 4.5% during the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 3,567 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $837,000 after buying an additional 155 shares during the period. 82.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.