Needham & Company LLC Reaffirms Hold Rating for Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI)

Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "hold" rating restated by equities researchers at Needham & Company LLC in a report released on Friday,Benzinga reports.

Several other brokerages have also issued reports on NVMI. Cantor Fitzgerald assumed coverage on Nova in a research report on Monday, January 13th. They set an "overweight" rating and a $275.00 target price on the stock. Benchmark boosted their price target on Nova from $240.00 to $245.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Finally, Citigroup upgraded Nova from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their price target for the company from $226.00 to $240.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $246.67.

Nova Stock Performance

NASDAQ:NVMI traded up $5.10 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $273.07. 333,114 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 237,655. The company has a fifty day moving average of $224.41 and a 200 day moving average of $208.21. Nova has a twelve month low of $154.54 and a twelve month high of $289.90. The company has a market capitalization of $7.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.95, a P/E/G ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 1.44.

Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The semiconductor company reported $1.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.82 by ($0.04). Nova had a net margin of 28.00% and a return on equity of 21.35%. The business had revenue of $194.77 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $186.50 million. On average, research analysts expect that Nova will post 5.78 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Nova

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of NVMI. Wasatch Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Nova by 49.3% in the fourth quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 2,411,677 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $474,980,000 after buying an additional 796,629 shares during the last quarter. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Nova by 74.6% in the third quarter. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd now owns 1,281,869 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $267,487,000 after buying an additional 547,833 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Nova by 115.1% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 661,282 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $146,515,000 after buying an additional 353,906 shares during the last quarter. Polar Capital Holdings Plc boosted its stake in shares of Nova by 504.5% in the fourth quarter. Polar Capital Holdings Plc now owns 354,302 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $69,780,000 after buying an additional 295,691 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors boosted its stake in shares of Nova by 33.3% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 600,868 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $118,341,000 after buying an additional 150,000 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.99% of the company's stock.

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.