Principal Financial Group Inc. Raises Position in Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI)

Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI – Get Rating) by 7.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 276,981 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after acquiring an additional 20,168 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned approximately 0.97% of Nova worth $22,624,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Premier Fund Managers Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Nova by 13,202.5% during the 4th quarter. Premier Fund Managers Ltd now owns 932,503 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $8,551,000 after acquiring an additional 925,493 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Nova by 4.6% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 904,099 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $77,120,000 after acquiring an additional 39,986 shares during the last quarter. Meitav Dash Investments Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Nova by 28.4% during the 4th quarter. Meitav Dash Investments Ltd. now owns 753,048 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $61,433,000 after acquiring an additional 166,462 shares during the last quarter. Montanaro Asset Management Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Nova by 5.6% during the 4th quarter. Montanaro Asset Management Ltd now owns 300,725 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $24,563,000 after buying an additional 15,850 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Phoenix Holdings Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Nova by 13.0% during the 3rd quarter. Phoenix Holdings Ltd. now owns 200,429 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $17,463,000 after buying an additional 23,014 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.02% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently weighed in on NVMI. Needham & Company LLC lifted their target price on shares of Nova from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 14th. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of Nova in a research note on Thursday, April 20th. They set a “buy” rating and a $115.00 target price on the stock. Benchmark lifted their target price on shares of Nova from $100.00 to $106.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 16th. Finally, StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Nova in a research note on Thursday. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $112.20.

Nova Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of NVMI stock opened at $100.40 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $2.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.71 and a beta of 1.25. Nova Ltd. has a 52 week low of $67.40 and a 52 week high of $111.00. The company has a quick ratio of 3.77, a current ratio of 4.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $96.21 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $90.76.

Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 15th. The semiconductor company reported $1.17 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $151.24 million for the quarter. Nova had a net margin of 24.73% and a return on equity of 25.31%. Analysts predict that Nova Ltd. will post 3.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Nova

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Nova Ltd. engages in the provision of metrology solutions for the semiconductor manufacturing industry. Its products and services include dimensional metrology, in-line materials and chemical metrology for semiconductor manufacturing and software solutions. The company was founded by Giora Dishon and Moshe Finarov in May 1993 and is headquartered in Rehovot, Israel.