American Century Companies Inc. Increases Holdings in Nova Ltd. $NVMI

American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI) by 9.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 147,657 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after acquiring an additional 12,957 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. owned 0.50% of Nova worth $40,635,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Amundi increased its position in Nova by 195.9% in the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 24,063 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $4,143,000 after acquiring an additional 15,930 shares during the period. Plato Investment Management Ltd purchased a new position in Nova in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $208,000. Y.D. More Investments Ltd grew its stake in Nova by 6.8% in the 2nd quarter. Y.D. More Investments Ltd now owns 318,035 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $89,781,000 after acquiring an additional 20,114 shares during the last quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. lifted its stake in Nova by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. now owns 278,638 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $76,681,000 after buying an additional 3,759 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MetLife Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Nova in the 1st quarter valued at about $577,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.99% of the company’s stock.

Nova Stock Performance

Shares of NVMI opened at $312.53 on Friday. Nova Ltd. has a 52 week low of $153.99 and a 52 week high of $361.32. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $318.13 and its 200 day moving average price is $274.92. The company has a market capitalization of $9.19 billion, a PE ratio of 42.52, a PEG ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.79.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently commented on NVMI. Benchmark upped their price objective on Nova from $280.00 to $345.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 7th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Nova in a research note on Monday. Finally, Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of Nova from $290.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 7th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Nova presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $307.00.

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.