Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI) has received a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the eleven analysts that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, eight have issued a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $514.4444.

NVMI has been the subject of several recent research reports. Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of Nova from $595.00 to $550.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 10th. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $600.00 target price on shares of Nova in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Nova from $494.00 to $540.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, July 6th. Zacks Research upgraded Nova from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered Nova from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 7th.

Insider Activity

In other Nova news, Director Sarit Sagiv sold 454 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $536.52, for a total value of $243,580.08. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 1,951 shares in the company, valued at $1,046,750.52. The trade was a 18.88% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Yaniv Garty sold 366 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $581.20, for a total transaction of $212,719.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 2,006 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,165,887.20. This trade represents a 15.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 6,942 shares of company stock worth $3,419,027 in the last quarter. 1.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Engineers Gate Manager LP acquired a new position in Nova in the second quarter worth $276,000. NewEdge Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Nova by 4.9% in the second quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 1,383 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $751,000 after buying an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. IFP Advisors Inc lifted its position in Nova by 688.9% during the 2nd quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 71 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $39,000 after buying an additional 62 shares in the last quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in Nova by 175.0% during the 2nd quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,353 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $735,000 after acquiring an additional 861 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Amundi grew its holdings in Nova by 19.6% during the 2nd quarter. Amundi now owns 65,163 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $35,380,000 after acquiring an additional 10,690 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.99% of the company’s stock.

Nova Stock Down 0.5%

Nova stock traded down $1.88 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $346.19. The stock had a trading volume of 46,273 shares, compared to its average volume of 451,297. The company has a 50-day moving average of $394.68 and a two-hundred day moving average of $459.05. The company has a market cap of $11.00 billion, a PE ratio of 42.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.76. Nova has a fifty-two week low of $266.43 and a fifty-two week high of $615.99.

Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 7th. The semiconductor company reported $2.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.41 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $254.96 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $250.33 million. Nova had a return on equity of 21.41% and a net margin of 28.84%.Nova’s quarterly revenue was up 15.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.20 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Nova will post 9.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Nova announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, September 2nd that permits the company to repurchase $200.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the semiconductor company to buy up to 1.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

About Nova

Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ: NVMI) is an Israel-based provider of metrology and process-control solutions for the semiconductor manufacturing industry. The company develops systems that help chip manufacturers measure and control critical process parameters during wafer fabrication, supporting the production of increasingly small and complex semiconductor devices.

Nova’s product portfolio includes optical and x-ray metrology systems, dimensional and materials measurement solutions, chemical metrology tools, and integrated metrology systems that can be incorporated into semiconductor production equipment.