Polar Capital Holdings Plc Acquires 295,691 Shares of Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI)

Polar Capital Holdings Plc increased its position in Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI - Free Report) by 504.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 354,302 shares of the semiconductor company's stock after buying an additional 295,691 shares during the period. Polar Capital Holdings Plc owned 1.22% of Nova worth $69,780,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in Nova by 253.9% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 35,327 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $7,360,000 after purchasing an additional 25,345 shares during the period. SkyOak Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of Nova in the 4th quarter valued at about $327,000. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Nova by 7.6% in the 4th quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 1,370,985 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $270,015,000 after buying an additional 97,000 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in Nova by 4.1% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 22,472 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $4,426,000 after purchasing an additional 877 shares during the period. Finally, Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. increased its holdings in Nova by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. now owns 1,169,625 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $230,358,000 after acquiring an additional 11,915 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.99% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on NVMI. Needham & Company LLC reissued a "hold" rating on shares of Nova in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Bank of America reduced their target price on Nova from $310.00 to $248.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Cantor Fitzgerald reduced their price objective on Nova from $315.00 to $300.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 14th. 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. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price target on Nova from $290.00 to $280.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Nova has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $277.00.

Nova Stock Performance

Shares of Nova stock traded down $0.61 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $189.56. 47,443 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 229,197. The stock's fifty day moving average is $189.93 and its 200 day moving average is $207.37. The stock has a market cap of $5.57 billion, a PE ratio of 33.03, a P/E/G ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 1.66. Nova Ltd. has a 12 month low of $154.00 and a 12 month high of $289.90.

Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 8th. The semiconductor company reported $2.18 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.08 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $213.36 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $210.10 million. Nova had a net margin of 27.33% and a return on equity of 22.33%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 50.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.39 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Nova Ltd. will post 7.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Nova Company Profile

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.