Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI) has been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the six research firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1-year price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $226.80.

NVMI has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Citigroup downgraded shares of Nova from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $273.00 to $224.00 in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Benchmark raised their price target on Nova from $215.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 9th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Nova

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norden Group LLC purchased a new position in Nova during the first quarter worth about $289,000. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. acquired a new stake in Nova in the first quarter valued at $252,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its holdings in shares of Nova by 231.2% in the 1st quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 31,083 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $5,514,000 after purchasing an additional 21,699 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC grew its position in Nova by 12.7% during the first quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 6,395 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,134,000 after buying an additional 719 shares during the period. Finally, Duality Advisers LP acquired a new position in Nova during the first quarter worth about $266,000. 82.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Nova Trading Down 0.2 %

NASDAQ:NVMI opened at $184.99 on Monday. Nova has a 12-month low of $98.19 and a 12-month high of $247.21. The firm has a market cap of $5.37 billion, a PE ratio of 38.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 1.47. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $201.28 and a 200 day moving average price of $207.48.

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

About Nova

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.