Meitav Investment House Ltd. Purchases 90,883 Shares of Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI)

Meitav Investment House Ltd. boosted its position in Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI) by 16.3% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 647,722 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after acquiring an additional 90,883 shares during the quarter. Nova accounts for 2.3% of Meitav Investment House Ltd.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 10th biggest position. Meitav Investment House Ltd.’s holdings in Nova were worth $135,513,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in NVMI. Employees Retirement System of Texas acquired a new stake in Nova during the second quarter valued at approximately $68,000. FSC Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in Nova in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $79,000. Signaturefd LLC boosted its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 105 shares in the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. boosted its stake in Nova by 46.2% during the 1st quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 1,038 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $184,000 after purchasing an additional 328 shares in the last quarter. Finally, OLD National Bancorp IN bought a new position in Nova during the 2nd quarter valued at $205,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.99% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on NVMI shares. Citigroup downgraded Nova from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $273.00 to $224.00 in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Benchmark increased their price objective on Nova from $215.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given 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 price target of $226.80.

Nova Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:NVMI opened at $195.02 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $5.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.08, a P/E/G ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 1.46. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $202.80 and its 200-day moving average is $207.05. Nova Ltd. has a 52-week low of $92.68 and a 52-week high of $247.21.

Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The semiconductor company reported $1.61 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.18 by $0.43. The company had revenue of $156.86 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $148.12 million. Nova had a return on equity of 20.76% and a net margin of 27.38%. The firm’s revenue was up 27.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.97 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Nova Ltd. will post 5.63 EPS for the current year.

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.