Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI) Short Interest Update

Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI) was the target of a large increase in short interest in March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,530,000 shares, an increase of 28.6% from the February 28th total of 1,190,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 259,100 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 5.9 days. Approximately 5.3% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Advisors Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Nova by 89.7% in the 3rd quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 165 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 78 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its holdings in Nova by 170.5% during the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 21,987 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $4,581,000 after acquiring an additional 13,858 shares during the period. Townsquare Capital LLC raised its position in Nova by 10.5% in the third quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 11,487 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $2,393,000 after acquiring an additional 1,094 shares in the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank lifted its holdings in Nova by 19.9% in the 3rd quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 12,491 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $2,616,000 after acquiring an additional 2,070 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Concentric Capital Strategies LP bought a new stake in shares of Nova in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,691,000. 82.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on NVMI. Cantor Fitzgerald reduced their price objective on Nova from $315.00 to $300.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Nova in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Citigroup raised shares of Nova from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $226.00 to $240.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Benchmark increased their price objective on shares of Nova from $245.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $250.83.

Nova Stock Performance

Shares of NVMI traded down $2.10 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $184.33. 229,227 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 217,442. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.40 billion, a PE ratio of 32.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 1.46. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $234.84 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $210.60. Nova has a 1-year low of $158.00 and a 1-year high of $289.90.

Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The semiconductor company reported $1.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by ($0.04). The business had revenue of $194.77 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $186.50 million. Nova had a return on equity of 22.33% and a net margin of 27.33%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Nova will post 7.52 EPS for the current fiscal 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.