Camtek Ltd. (NASDAQ:CAMT) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

Camtek Ltd. (NASDAQ:CAMT) was the target of a large increase in short interest in the month of November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,390,000 shares, an increase of 9.4% from the October 31st total of 3,100,000 shares. Currently, 12.2% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 573,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 5.9 days.

Camtek Trading Down 0.3 %

Camtek stock traded down $0.21 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $75.75. The company had a trading volume of 48,401 shares, compared to its average volume of 534,374. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 5.28 and a quick ratio of 4.36. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $78.69 and a 200 day moving average price of $94.33. The firm has a market cap of $3.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.00, a P/E/G ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.34. Camtek has a 12-month low of $60.60 and a 12-month high of $140.50.

Camtek (NASDAQ:CAMT) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, November 12th. The semiconductor company reported $0.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.69 by $0.06. Camtek had a return on equity of 24.21% and a net margin of 26.53%. The firm had revenue of $112.30 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $108.51 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.46 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 39.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Camtek will post 2.53 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CAMT has been the subject of several analyst reports. Northland Securities raised their target price on Camtek from $99.00 to $102.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $95.00 target price on shares of Camtek in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Camtek from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $110.57.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Camtek

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Advisors Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Camtek by 78.8% during the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 329 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 145 shares in the last quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its position in shares of Camtek by 23,300.0% during the second quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 468 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $59,000 after purchasing an additional 466 shares in the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB bought a new stake in shares of Camtek during the third quarter valued at approximately $53,000. Gateway Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Camtek during the second quarter valued at approximately $220,000. Finally, Susquehanna International Group Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Camtek during the second quarter valued at approximately $237,000. 41.93% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Camtek

Camtek Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, develops, manufactures, and sells inspection and metrology equipment for semiconductor industry. The company provides Eagle-i, a system that delivers 2D inspection and metrology capabilities; Eagle-AP, which addresses the advanced packaging market using software and hardware technologies that deliver superior 2D and 3D inspection and metrology capabilities on the same platform; and Golden Eagle, a panel inspection and metrology system to address the challenges fanout wafer level packaging applications.