Citigroup Lowers Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI) to Neutral

Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI) was downgraded by Citigroup from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report released on Monday, MarketBeat reports. They presently have a $224.00 target price on the semiconductor company’s stock, down from their prior target price of $273.00. Citigroup’s price target points to a potential upside of 8.36% from the stock’s previous close.

Separately, Benchmark boosted their price target on shares of Nova from $215.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $226.80.

Nova Price Performance

NASDAQ:NVMI opened at $206.71 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $6.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 47.63, a P/E/G ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 1.46. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $214.26 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $202.33. Nova has a 1 year low of $90.59 and a 1 year high of $247.21.

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. The company had revenue of $156.86 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $148.12 million. Nova had a return on equity of 20.76% and a net margin of 27.38%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 27.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.97 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Nova will post 5.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Nova

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of NVMI. Maven Securities LTD purchased a new stake in Nova in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $227,000. Cetera Investment Advisers increased its holdings in shares of Nova by 70.4% in the second quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 6,018 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,411,000 after purchasing an additional 2,486 shares during the period. Creative Planning raised its position in shares of Nova by 4.5% in the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 3,567 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $837,000 after buying an additional 155 shares in the last quarter. Susquehanna International Group Ltd. bought a new stake in Nova during the second quarter valued at $1,145,000. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company purchased a new position in Nova during the second quarter worth about $211,000. 82.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.