Bank of America Increases Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI) Price Target to $270.00

Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI - Get Free Report) had its target price hoisted by equities research analysts at Bank of America from $250.00 to $270.00 in a note issued to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a "buy" rating on the semiconductor company's stock. Bank of America's target price would suggest a potential upside of 0.85% from the company's current price.

NVMI has been the subject of several other reports. Citigroup cut their target price on shares of Nova from $290.00 to $280.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 9th. Benchmark cut their target price on Nova from $295.00 to $280.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 9th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Nova from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, May 30th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald lowered their price objective on shares of Nova from $315.00 to $300.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 14th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $282.50.

Nova Stock Down 0.4%

NASDAQ:NVMI traded down $1.16 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $267.72. 143,095 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 236,952. Nova has a 52 week low of $154.00 and a 52 week high of $289.90. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $206.79 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $213.36. The firm has a market cap of $7.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.42, a P/E/G ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.61.

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

Institutional Trading of Nova

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in shares of Nova by 1,016.2% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 17,960 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $3,537,000 after buying an additional 16,351 shares during the period. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in Nova by 111.9% in the 4th quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 15,296 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $3,013,000 after acquiring an additional 8,076 shares during the last quarter. Tower View Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Nova by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Tower View Wealth Management LLC now owns 19,649 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $3,870,000 after acquiring an additional 214 shares during the period. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Nova during the fourth quarter valued at about $112,000. Finally, Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Nova by 7.9% during the fourth quarter. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd now owns 1,383,339 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $272,517,000 after purchasing an additional 101,470 shares during the period. 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.