Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI) Shares Purchased by Barclays PLC

Barclays PLC boosted its stake in shares of Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI) by 13.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,083 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after buying an additional 824 shares during the quarter. Barclays PLC’s holdings in Nova were worth $1,395,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in NVMI. Virtu Financial LLC grew its holdings in shares of Nova by 33.6% in the 3rd quarter. Virtu Financial LLC now owns 2,938 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $612,000 after acquiring an additional 739 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC grew its holdings in Nova by 4.6% in the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 15,142 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $3,155,000 after purchasing an additional 661 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its position in shares of Nova by 115.1% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 661,282 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $146,515,000 after buying an additional 353,906 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in shares of Nova by 253.9% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 35,327 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $7,360,000 after buying an additional 25,345 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its position in shares of Nova by 352.8% in the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 3,618 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $713,000 after buying an additional 2,819 shares in the last quarter. 82.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Nova Stock Up 3.3 %

NVMI stock opened at $202.18 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 1.63. Nova Ltd. has a 52-week low of $154.00 and a 52-week high of $289.90. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $197.24 and its 200-day simple moving average is $206.70.

Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The semiconductor company reported $1.78 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.82 by ($0.04). The company had revenue of $194.77 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $186.50 million. Nova had a return on equity of 22.33% and a net margin of 27.33%. As a group, 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.