Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI) Hits New 12-Month High at $244.97

Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI) reached a new 52-week high during trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $244.97 and last traded at $244.28, with a volume of 43998 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $238.53.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have commented on NVMI. Benchmark upped their target price on shares of Nova from $187.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 10th. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of Nova in a research note on Monday, May 13th. They set a “buy” rating and a $240.00 price target on the stock. Evercore ISI began coverage on shares of Nova in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $210.00 price target on the stock. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Nova from $190.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 10th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Nova in a research note on Friday, May 10th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Nova has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $221.25.

Nova Price Performance

The stock’s 50 day moving average is $214.45 and its two-hundred day moving average is $178.98. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.04 billion, a PE ratio of 55.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.49 and a beta of 1.47.

Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 9th. The semiconductor company reported $1.39 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.10 by $0.29. Nova had a net margin of 26.26% and a return on equity of 19.89%. The firm had revenue of $141.80 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $136.78 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.12 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Nova Ltd. will post 4.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Nova

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. increased its stake in Nova by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 1,070,485 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $147,074,000 after purchasing an additional 33,800 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Nova by 1.5% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 987,071 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $175,087,000 after purchasing an additional 14,115 shares during the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Nova by 3.0% in the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 803,025 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $142,408,000 after purchasing an additional 23,668 shares during the last quarter. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd increased its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 259,021 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors increased its stake in Nova by 22.3% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 450,868 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $79,975,000 after purchasing an additional 82,322 shares during the last quarter. 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.