Morgan Stanley Issues Positive Forecast for Camtek (NASDAQ:CAMT) Stock Price

Camtek (NASDAQ:CAMT) had its price target increased by Morgan Stanley from $151.00 to $161.00 in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. Morgan Stanley currently has an equal weight rating on the semiconductor company’s stock.

Several other research firms have also recently commented on CAMT. Northland Securities cut Camtek from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and set a $150.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, February 18th. B. Riley Financial upped their price target on Camtek from $145.00 to $175.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 26th. Oppenheimer raised their price target on Camtek from $120.00 to $180.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 19th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 price objective on shares of Camtek in a report on Tuesday, December 16th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Camtek from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $166.75.

Camtek Stock Up 4.1%

Shares of NASDAQ CAMT opened at $179.30 on Tuesday. Camtek has a 12-month low of $47.41 and a 12-month high of $180.83. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $154.63 and its 200 day simple moving average is $126.01. The company has a quick ratio of 7.31, a current ratio of 8.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84. The company has a market cap of $8.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 190.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.08 and a beta of 1.53.

Camtek (NASDAQ:CAMT) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 18th. The semiconductor company reported $0.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.83 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $128.12 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $127.10 million. Camtek had a return on equity of 23.61% and a net margin of 10.23%.Camtek’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.77 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Camtek will post 2.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Camtek

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Wasatch Advisors LP lifted its stake in Camtek by 14.7% in the third quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 4,020,683 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $422,373,000 after buying an additional 513,956 shares during the period. Menora Mivtachim Holdings LTD. increased its stake in shares of Camtek by 31.1% in the 3rd quarter. Menora Mivtachim Holdings LTD. now owns 2,099,351 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $220,537,000 after acquiring an additional 497,918 shares during the last quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. raised its position in shares of Camtek by 56.9% in the 4th quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. now owns 1,665,236 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $177,090,000 after acquiring an additional 604,097 shares during the period. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. boosted its stake in Camtek by 12.0% during the 4th quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 1,318,396 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $140,205,000 after acquiring an additional 140,796 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Brown Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Camtek by 1.2% during the third quarter. Brown Capital Management LLC now owns 1,153,943 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $121,222,000 after purchasing an additional 13,806 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 41.93% of the company’s stock.

About Camtek

Camtek Ltd. (NASDAQ: CAMT) is a provider of automated inspection and metrology solutions for the semiconductor and printed circuit board (PCB) industries. The company develops, manufactures and markets a suite of inline and stand-alone systems that perform high‐resolution 2D and 3D measurements, defect review and process control. Its products are used by integrated device manufacturers, foundries, OSAT (outsourced semiconductor assembly and test) providers, and PCB fabricators to optimize yield, improve product quality and reduce production costs.

Camtek’s core offerings include wafer inspection systems that detect and classify defects on patterned wafers, patterned wafer metrology tools for overlay and critical dimension measurements, and advanced packaging inspection platforms for 3D ICs and fan-out wafer-level packaging.