Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Buys Shares of 1,299 Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI)

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC bought a new stake in shares of Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 1,299 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $239,000.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC raised its holdings in shares of Nova by 24.1% during the fourth quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 401 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $79,000 after acquiring an additional 78 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP raised its holdings in shares of Nova by 187.1% during the fourth quarter. Quarry LP now owns 402 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $79,000 after acquiring an additional 262 shares during the last quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Nova during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $112,000. Quadrant Capital Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Nova by 5.2% during the fourth quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 1,030 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $203,000 after acquiring an additional 51 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Advisory Services Network LLC raised its holdings in shares of Nova by 5.0% during the fourth quarter. Advisory Services Network LLC now owns 1,149 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $226,000 after acquiring an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have commented on NVMI. Citigroup reduced their target price on Nova from $290.00 to $280.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 9th. Bank of America upped their price target on Nova from $250.00 to $270.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Benchmark dropped their price target on Nova from $295.00 to $280.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 9th. Wall Street Zen lowered Nova from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, May 30th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $300.00 price target (up from $250.00) on shares of Nova in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Nova currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $282.50.

Nova Price Performance

NVMI stock opened at $284.77 on Monday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $217.98 and a 200-day simple moving average of $217.01. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.37 billion, a PE ratio of 43.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 1.66. Nova Ltd. has a 1 year low of $154.00 and a 1 year high of $289.90.

Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 8th. The semiconductor company reported $2.18 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.08 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $213.36 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $210.10 million. Nova had a return on equity of 23.98% and a net margin of 28.46%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 50.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.39 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Nova Ltd. will post 7.52 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.