Onto Innovation (NYSE:ONTO) Shares Gap Down Following Analyst Downgrade

Onto Innovation Inc. (NYSE:ONTO)’s stock price gapped down before the market opened on Friday after Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on the stock from $270.00 to $250.00. The stock had previously closed at $210.59, but opened at $197.75. Stifel Nicolaus currently has a buy rating on the stock. Onto Innovation shares last traded at $186.58, with a volume of 507,969 shares changing hands.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently commented on ONTO. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $275.00 price target on shares of Onto Innovation in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $230.00 target price on shares of Onto Innovation in a research report on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on Onto Innovation from $265.00 to $245.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $230.00 target price on shares of Onto Innovation in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald began coverage on Onto Innovation in a research report on Monday, January 13th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $250.00 target price for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $251.25.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Onto Innovation by 42.1% in the 4th quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 6,342 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,057,000 after buying an additional 1,878 shares during the last quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. purchased a new position in shares of Onto Innovation in the fourth quarter valued at $4,330,000. Geneva Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Onto Innovation by 7.6% during the fourth quarter. Geneva Capital Management LLC now owns 1,010,691 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $168,452,000 after purchasing an additional 71,050 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Onto Innovation in the 4th quarter valued at about $43,893,000. Finally, Arizona State Retirement System grew its holdings in shares of Onto Innovation by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 14,332 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $2,389,000 after acquiring an additional 143 shares during the period. 98.35% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Onto Innovation Trading Down 10.1 %

The company has a market cap of $9.36 billion, a PE ratio of 51.34, a P/E/G ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 1.31. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $185.54 and a two-hundred day moving average of $190.38.

Onto Innovation (NYSE:ONTO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The semiconductor company reported $1.51 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.41 by $0.10. Onto Innovation had a return on equity of 13.38% and a net margin of 19.44%. On average, research analysts forecast that Onto Innovation Inc. will post 5.22 EPS for the current year.

Onto Innovation Company Profile

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.