Artisan Partners Limited Partnership Sells 164,566 Shares of Novanta Inc. $NOVT

Artisan Partners Limited Partnership decreased its stake in shares of Novanta Inc. (NASDAQ:NOVT) by 51.7% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 153,512 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 164,566 shares during the period. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership owned approximately 0.43% of Novanta worth $19,792,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in Novanta by 1.9% in the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 485,196 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $62,042,000 after acquiring an additional 9,243 shares during the last quarter. Advantage Alpha Capital Partners LP grew its holdings in Novanta by 163.8% during the first quarter. Advantage Alpha Capital Partners LP now owns 38,823 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $4,964,000 after purchasing an additional 24,107 shares during the period. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Novanta by 1.9% during the 1st quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 693,090 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $88,626,000 after acquiring an additional 12,921 shares during the period. Quantbot Technologies LP lifted its stake in shares of Novanta by 39.9% during the 1st quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 19,999 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,557,000 after buying an additional 5,704 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Novanta during the 1st quarter valued at $16,075,000. Institutional investors own 98.35% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently issued reports on NOVT. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on Novanta from $139.00 to $133.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 11th. Weiss Ratings lowered Novanta from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Saturday, October 25th. Zacks Research upgraded Novanta from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, October 6th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Novanta from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, August 11th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Novanta currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $133.00.

Novanta Trading Up 7.3%

Shares of NASDAQ:NOVT opened at $106.51 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.62, a current ratio of 2.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $110.64 and a 200-day moving average price of $118.78. Novanta Inc. has a 52-week low of $98.27 and a 52-week high of $175.83. The stock has a market cap of $3.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 62.65 and a beta of 1.54.

Novanta (NASDAQ:NOVT) last posted its earnings results on Monday, November 3rd. The technology company reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.06. Novanta had a net margin of 6.41% and a return on equity of 14.70%. The company had revenue of $247.84 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $245.95 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.85 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. Novanta has set its FY 2025 guidance at 3.240-3.300 EPS. Q4 2025 guidance at 0.870-0.930 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Novanta Inc. will post 3.03 EPS for the current year.

Novanta announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, September 18th that allows the company to repurchase $200.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the technology company to repurchase up to 4.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Novanta Profile

Novanta, Inc engages in the provision of core technology solutions to healthcare and advanced industrial original equipment manufacturers. It operates through the following segments: Photonics, Vision, and Precision Motion. The Photonics segment designs, manufactures, and markets photonics-based solutions, including laser scanning and laser beam delivery, CO2 laser, continuous wave and ultrafast laser, and optical light engine products.