Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI) Shares Gap Down to $206.71

Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI) gapped down before the market opened on Monday . The stock had previously closed at $206.71, but opened at $197.04. Nova shares last traded at $195.34, with a volume of 34,179 shares.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have weighed in on NVMI shares. Benchmark lifted their price target on shares of Nova from $215.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. Citigroup cut shares of Nova from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $273.00 to $224.00 in a research note on Monday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $226.80.

Nova Price Performance

The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $214.26 and its 200-day moving average price is $202.33. The stock has a market cap of $5.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.28, a PEG ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 1.46.

Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The semiconductor company reported $1.61 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.18 by $0.43. Nova had a net margin of 27.38% and a return on equity of 20.76%. The company had revenue of $156.86 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $148.12 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.97 EPS. Nova’s revenue for the quarter was up 27.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Nova Ltd. will post 5.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Nova

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Employees Retirement System of Texas purchased a new position in shares of Nova in the second quarter valued at $68,000. FSC Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in Nova during the second quarter valued at $79,000. Signaturefd LLC grew its stake in shares of Nova by 15.9% in the 2nd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 767 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $180,000 after buying an additional 105 shares in the last quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN bought a new stake in shares of Nova in the 2nd quarter worth about $205,000. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company purchased a new stake in shares of Nova during the 2nd quarter valued at about $211,000. Institutional investors own 82.99% of the company’s stock.

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.