Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI) Trading Up 3.6%

Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI - Get Free Report)'s stock price traded up 3.6% on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $176.67 and last traded at $176.67. 53,837 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 65% from the average session volume of 153,005 shares. The stock had previously closed at $170.47.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the company. Evercore ISI began coverage on Nova in a research report on Tuesday. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $210.00 target price for the company. Benchmark boosted their price objective on Nova from $150.00 to $187.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $170.67.

Nova Stock Up 3.2 %

The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $171.31 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $139.69. The stock has a market cap of $5.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.83, a P/E/G ratio of 6.47 and a beta of 1.41.

Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The semiconductor company reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.07 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $134.22 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $128.00 million. Nova had a return on equity of 20.55% and a net margin of 26.32%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Nova Ltd. will post 4.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Nova

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. raised its holdings in Nova by 2.1% in the third quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. now owns 1,312,919 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $147,625,000 after purchasing an additional 27,050 shares in the last quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. raised its holdings in Nova by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 1,070,485 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $147,074,000 after purchasing an additional 33,800 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Nova by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 972,956 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $133,674,000 after purchasing an additional 13,891 shares in the last quarter. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd raised its holdings in Nova by 74.9% in the fourth quarter. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd now owns 604,977 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $83,202,000 after purchasing an additional 259,021 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in Nova by 118.1% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 428,132 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $48,139,000 after purchasing an additional 231,862 shares in the last quarter. 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.