Wasatch Advisors, Inc. recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Technology company by 9.00% to 2.9 million shares with purchase of 0.24 million shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 10.06% valued currently at $236.57 million. In addition, Harel Mutual Funds Ltd. raised its holdings by 0.72 million to 1.96 million shares. And Migdal Makefet Pension & Providen has lifted its position by 0.23% or 4484.0 shares – to 1.94 million shares.
With over 0.12 million Nova Ltd. (NVMI) shares trading Monday and a closing price of $96.48 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $11.73 million. The shares have shown a negative half year performance of -4.97% and its price on 01/23/23 gained nearly 4.08%. Currently, there are 28.68M common shares owned by the public and among those 28.51M shares have been available to trade.
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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 4 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for NVMI have a consensus price objective of $105.00. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $123.00 and a low of $90.00. The average price target is 8.11% above its recent price level and a downside to the estimated low will see the stock lose -7.2% over that period. But an upside of 21.56% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $103.50.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in Nova Ltd. are Fidelity Select Port. – Semicondu, Wasatch Small Cap Growth Fund, and Vanguard Total International Stoc. Fidelity Select Port. – Semicondu owns 1.04 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $84.82 million. Wasatch Small Cap Growth Fund bought 0.22 million shares to see its total holdings expand to 0.59 million shares valued at over $48.14 million and representing 2.05% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard Total International Stoc sold 1452.0 shares to bring its total holdings to over 0.38 million shares at a value of $31.33 million. Vanguard Total International Stoc now owns shares totaling to 1.33% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ: NVMI) opened at $93.70, up $1.0 from a prior closing price of $92.70. However, the script later moved the day high at 97.87, up 4.08%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of 6.53% and 36.56% over the past three months. NVMI shares are trading 18.12% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance down to -19.53% lower. It has a 12-month low price of $67.40 and touched a high of $122.46 over the same period. NVMI has an average intraday trading volume of 120.18K shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by 12.11%, 12.33%, and 4.10% respectively.
Institutional ownership of Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ: NVMI) shares accounts for 78.40% of the company’s 28.68M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 56.48%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 7.85% and 34.13% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $2.69B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 1.23. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 24.14, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $4.00. The company has a PEG of 0.75 and a Quick Ratio of 3.80 with the debt-to-equity ratio at 0.35. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 2.84% over the week and 3.20% over the month.
Analysts forecast that Nova Ltd. (NVMI) will achieve an EPS of $1.16 for the current quarter, $1.16 for the next quarter and $4.9 for 2023. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $1.16 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $1.16. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $1.16 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to increase by 88.70%, and -18.69% over the next financial year. EPS should shrink at an annualized rate of 32.20% over the next five years, compared to 54.90% over the past 5-year period.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 4 brokerage firm advisors rate Nova Ltd. (NVMI) as a “Strong Buy” at a consensus score of 1.50. Specifically, 4 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 0 of the 4 advise that investors “hold,” and 0 rated it as a “Sell.”
Looking at the support for the NVMI, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. BofA Securities stated their Buy rating for the stock in a research note on January 10, 2022, with the firm’s price target at $150-$160. BofA Securities coverage for the Nova Ltd. (NVMI) stock in a research note released on September 17, 2021 offered a Buy rating with a price target of $125. Stifel was of a view on May 05, 2021 that the stock is Buy, while BofA Securities gave the stock Buy rating on February 23, 2021, issuing a price target of $100. Citigroup on their part issued Buy rating on February 09, 2021.
