Analysts Set Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI) Price Target at $227.80

Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI - Get Free Report) has been given a consensus recommendation of "Moderate Buy" by the six ratings firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $227.80.

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on NVMI. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a "hold" rating on shares of Nova in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Benchmark lifted their target price on shares of Nova from $240.00 to $245.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Finally, Citigroup lowered shares of 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 note on Monday, September 16th.

Institutional Trading of Nova

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd lifted its position in Nova by 74.6% during the 3rd quarter. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd now owns 1,281,869 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $267,487,000 after acquiring an additional 547,833 shares during the last quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Nova by 6.5% during the 3rd quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 1,273,985 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $265,422,000 after purchasing an additional 78,000 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Nova by 1.5% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 987,071 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $175,087,000 after purchasing an additional 14,115 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its holdings in Nova by 115.1% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 661,282 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $146,515,000 after buying an additional 353,906 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Meitav Investment House Ltd. increased its position in Nova by 16.3% in the 3rd quarter. Meitav Investment House Ltd. now owns 647,722 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $135,513,000 after buying an additional 90,883 shares during the period. 82.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Nova Trading Up 6.6 %

NASDAQ NVMI traded up $11.37 during trading on Friday, reaching $183.76. 163,107 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 191,017. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.34 billion, a PE ratio of 34.16, a P/E/G ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.47. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $192.84 and its 200-day simple moving average is $208.31. Nova has a fifty-two week low of $124.42 and a fifty-two week high of $247.21.

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.