Phoenix Financial Ltd. Acquires 46,896 Shares of Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI)

Key Points

• Phoenix Financial Ltd. increased its stake in Nova Ltd. by 17.9% during the first quarter, owning a total of 309,436 shares valued at approximately $57 million as of the end of the quarter.
• Nova reported $2.18 EPS for the last quarter, surpassing expectations, and experienced a 50.5% year-over-year revenue growth to reach $213.36 million.
• Analysts have given Nova a current average rating of "Moderate Buy" with an average price target of $282.50, reflecting positive sentiments on its market performance.

Phoenix Financial Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI - Free Report) by 17.9% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 309,436 shares of the semiconductor company's stock after acquiring an additional 46,896 shares during the quarter. Phoenix Financial Ltd. owned approximately 1.06% of Nova worth $57,072,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in NVMI. Assetmark Inc. increased its stake in shares of Nova by 2.4% during the first quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 36,746 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $6,773,000 after acquiring an additional 852 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers increased its stake in shares of Nova by 5.1% during the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 5,009 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $923,000 after acquiring an additional 242 shares during the period. Carnegie Investment Counsel acquired a new position in shares of Nova during the first quarter valued at approximately $527,000. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd increased its stake in shares of Nova by 1,083.3% during the first quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd now owns 12,567 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $2,316,000 after acquiring an additional 11,505 shares during the period. Finally, Morse Asset Management Inc increased its stake in shares of Nova by 8.6% during the first quarter. Morse Asset Management Inc now owns 3,835 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $707,000 after acquiring an additional 305 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.99% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on NVMI. Benchmark lowered their price objective on shares of Nova from $295.00 to $280.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 9th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an "overweight" rating and set a $300.00 target price (up from $250.00) on shares of Nova in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Nova from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, May 30th. Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of Nova from $290.00 to $280.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 9th. Finally, Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Nova from $250.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Nova has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $282.50.

Nova Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:NVMI traded up $2.03 on Tuesday, hitting $271.16. 72,205 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 276,301. The company's 50 day moving average price is $244.25 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $225.18. Nova Ltd. has a one year low of $153.99 and a one year high of $291.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.96, a PEG ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 1.66.

Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 8th. The semiconductor company reported $2.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.08 by $0.10. Nova had a net margin of 28.46% and a return on equity of 23.98%. The company had revenue of $213.36 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $210.10 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.39 EPS. The business's revenue was up 50.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Nova Ltd. will post 7.52 earnings per share for the current year.

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.