The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company Invests $211,000 in Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI)

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company purchased a new position in shares of Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI) in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm purchased 900 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $211,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Employees Retirement System of Texas bought a new position in shares of Nova in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $68,000. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC raised its stake in shares of Nova by 247.8% in the 2nd quarter. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC now owns 20,164 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $4,729,000 after acquiring an additional 14,367 shares in the last quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Nova by 5.0% in the 2nd quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC now owns 1,230 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $288,000 after acquiring an additional 59 shares in the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. raised its stake in shares of Nova by 10.8% in the 2nd quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 142,312 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $33,376,000 after acquiring an additional 13,889 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Seven Eight Capital LP bought a new position in shares of Nova in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $316,000. 82.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on NVMI shares. Benchmark raised their price objective on Nova from $215.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 9th. Citigroup downgraded Nova from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $273.00 to $224.00 in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Nova currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $226.80.

Nova Trading Down 1.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ:NVMI opened at $184.21 on Friday. Nova Ltd. has a 1-year low of $90.59 and a 1-year high of $247.21. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.35 billion, a PE ratio of 42.44, a PEG ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 1.46. The business’s 50 day moving average is $209.56 and its 200-day moving average is $206.18.

Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 8th. The semiconductor company reported $1.61 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.18 by $0.43. Nova had a return on equity of 20.76% and a net margin of 27.38%. The company had revenue of $156.86 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $148.12 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.97 EPS. Nova’s revenue for the quarter was up 27.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Nova Ltd. will post 5.63 EPS for the current year.

Nova Company 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.