Russell Investments Group Ltd. Purchases 777 Shares of Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI)

Russell Investments Group Ltd. grew its position in Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI) by 44.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,543 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after buying an additional 777 shares during the quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd.’s holdings in Nova were worth $502,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Trexquant Investment LP raised its holdings in shares of Nova by 99.1% in the 4th quarter. Trexquant Investment LP now owns 32,826 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $6,465,000 after purchasing an additional 16,336 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Nova by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 24,725 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $4,870,000 after buying an additional 180 shares during the period. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new stake in Nova during the fourth quarter valued at about $662,000. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in Nova by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 674,453 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $132,834,000 after purchasing an additional 13,171 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its position in shares of Nova by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 5,688 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,120,000 after buying an additional 44 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NVMI has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Cantor Fitzgerald cut their price objective on shares of Nova from $315.00 to $300.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 14th. Benchmark boosted their target price on shares of Nova from $245.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Bank of America decreased their price target on shares of Nova from $310.00 to $248.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Nova in a report on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Citigroup raised shares of Nova from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $226.00 to $240.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Nova presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $264.60.

Nova Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ NVMI opened at $181.86 on Thursday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $207.00 and its 200-day simple moving average is $207.19. Nova Ltd. has a 12 month low of $154.00 and a 12 month high of $289.90. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.68, a PEG ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 1.63.

Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The semiconductor company reported $1.78 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by ($0.04). Nova had a net margin of 27.33% and a return on equity of 22.33%. The firm had revenue of $194.77 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $186.50 million. Analysts anticipate that Nova Ltd. will post 7.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Nova 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.