Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI) Sees Strong Trading Volume

Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI) shares saw an uptick in trading volume on Wednesday . 822,040 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 398% from the previous session’s volume of 165,015 shares.The stock last traded at $168.71 and had previously closed at $168.18.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Benchmark boosted their target price on Nova from $150.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. Evercore ISI initiated coverage on shares of Nova in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $210.00 price objective for the company.

Nova Stock Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $4.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.17 and a beta of 1.41. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $173.15 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $142.16.

Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The semiconductor company reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.07 by $0.14. Nova had a return on equity of 20.55% and a net margin of 26.32%. The business had revenue of $134.22 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $128.00 million. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Nova Ltd. will post 4.87 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Nova

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in NVMI. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd increased its stake in shares of Nova by 74.9% in the fourth quarter. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd now owns 604,977 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $83,202,000 after buying an additional 259,021 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Nova by 118.1% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 428,132 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $48,139,000 after acquiring an additional 231,862 shares during the last quarter. Carmignac Gestion acquired a new position in shares of Nova during the fourth quarter worth approximately $11,638,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its stake in shares of Nova by 33.4% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 276,478 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $31,087,000 after purchasing an additional 69,249 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Nova in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $9,409,000. 82.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.