Needham & Company LLC Reiterates “Hold” Rating for Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI)

Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI)‘s stock had its “hold” rating reissued by equities researchers at Needham & Company LLC in a report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports.

A number of other research firms also recently commented on NVMI. Cantor Fitzgerald initiated coverage on Nova in a report on Monday, January 13th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $275.00 target price for the company. Citigroup upgraded Nova from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $226.00 to $240.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Benchmark lifted their price target on Nova from $240.00 to $245.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Nova presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $246.67.

Nova Stock Down 0.4 %

Nova stock opened at $267.97 on Friday. Nova has a 52 week low of $154.54 and a 52 week high of $289.90. The company has a market capitalization of $7.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 1.44. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $223.02 and a 200 day moving average price of $207.65.

Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The semiconductor company reported $1.78 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by ($0.04). Nova had a return on equity of 21.35% and a net margin of 28.00%. The firm had revenue of $194.77 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $186.50 million. Research analysts anticipate that Nova will post 5.78 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Nova

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Quarry LP increased its position in shares of Nova by 187.1% in the fourth quarter. Quarry LP now owns 402 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $79,000 after buying an additional 262 shares in the last quarter. Nebula Research & Development LLC increased its position in shares of Nova by 324.7% in the fourth quarter. Nebula Research & Development LLC now owns 8,388 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,652,000 after buying an additional 6,413 shares in the last quarter. Oberweis Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Nova by 77.9% in the fourth quarter. Oberweis Asset Management Inc. now owns 111,000 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $21,861,000 after buying an additional 48,600 shares in the last quarter. Stifel Financial Corp increased its position in shares of Nova by 15.4% in the fourth quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 3,290 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $648,000 after buying an additional 438 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mirabella Financial Services LLP increased its position in shares of Nova by 168.7% in the fourth quarter. Mirabella Financial Services LLP now owns 12,499 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $2,462,000 after buying an additional 7,847 shares in the last quarter. 82.99% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Nova

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.