Camtek (NASDAQ:CAMT) Sets New 12-Month High – Still a Buy?

Shares of Camtek Ltd. (NASDAQ:CAMT) hit a new 52-week high during trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $185.41 and last traded at $181.9850, with a volume of 43732 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $180.63.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CAMT has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Camtek from $151.00 to $161.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 24th. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $185.00 price target on shares of Camtek in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. Zacks Research raised shares of Camtek from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $145.00 price target on shares of Camtek in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Camtek from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, March 21st. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $166.75.

Camtek Stock Performance

The business’s fifty day moving average price is $162.59 and its 200-day moving average price is $134.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 7.31 and a current ratio of 8.35. The stock has a market cap of $8.24 billion, a PE ratio of 191.26, a P/E/G ratio of 4.25 and a beta of 1.56.

Camtek (NASDAQ:CAMT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 18th. The semiconductor company reported $0.81 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.83 by ($0.02). Camtek had a return on equity of 23.61% and a net margin of 10.23%.The business had revenue of $128.12 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $127.10 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.77 EPS. Camtek’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Camtek Ltd. will post 2.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Camtek

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new position in shares of Camtek in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,503,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Camtek by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,079,022 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $113,454,000 after purchasing an additional 15,432 shares during the period. Brown Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Camtek by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Brown Capital Management LLC now owns 1,153,943 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $121,222,000 after purchasing an additional 13,806 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in shares of Camtek by 42.8% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 51,694 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $5,430,000 after purchasing an additional 15,490 shares during the period. Finally, Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Camtek by 31.3% in the 3rd quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 32,056 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $3,367,000 after purchasing an additional 7,646 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.