Camtek Ltd. (NASDAQ:CAMT) Sees Significant Drop in Short Interest

Camtek Ltd. (NASDAQ:CAMT - Get Free Report) saw a large drop in short interest in the month of May. As of May 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,090,000 shares, a drop of 14.2% from the April 30th total of 3,600,000 shares. Currently, 11.0% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 438,400 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 7.0 days.

Institutional Trading of Camtek

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd lifted its position in shares of Camtek by 27.8% during the first quarter. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd now owns 2,134,671 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $123,622,000 after purchasing an additional 464,671 shares during the last quarter. Menora Mivtachim Holdings LTD. raised its holdings in shares of Camtek by 81.8% in the fourth quarter. Menora Mivtachim Holdings LTD. now owns 1,566,433 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $126,521,000 after acquiring an additional 705,000 shares in the last quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Camtek by 27.6% in the first quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 1,448,441 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $84,922,000 after acquiring an additional 312,988 shares in the last quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Camtek by 311.8% in the fourth quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 1,192,784 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $96,341,000 after acquiring an additional 903,126 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC raised its holdings in Camtek by 110.5% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 1,015,307 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $59,527,000 after purchasing an additional 532,944 shares in the last quarter. 41.93% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Camtek Trading Up 1.8%

NASDAQ CAMT traded up $1.33 on Friday, hitting $73.49. 181,537 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 563,130. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 4.11 and a current ratio of 5.00. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $64.04 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $74.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.37, a P/E/G ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 1.29. Camtek has a 52-week low of $47.41 and a 52-week high of $140.50.

Camtek (NASDAQ:CAMT - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 13th. The semiconductor company reported $0.79 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $118.64 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $119.00 million. Camtek had a net margin of 27.61% and a return on equity of 24.99%. Camtek's quarterly revenue was up 22.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.63 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Camtek will post 2.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have commented on CAMT shares. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of Camtek from $120.00 to $85.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Evercore ISI reduced their price objective on shares of Camtek from $100.00 to $82.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 14th. Bank of America reduced their price objective on shares of Camtek from $105.00 to $80.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. B. Riley lifted their price objective on shares of Camtek from $85.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 14th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Camtek from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $90.78.

Camtek Company Profile

Camtek Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, develops, manufactures, and sells inspection and metrology equipment for semiconductor industry. The company provides Eagle-i, a system that delivers 2D inspection and metrology capabilities; Eagle-AP, which addresses the advanced packaging market using software and hardware technologies that deliver superior 2D and 3D inspection and metrology capabilities on the same platform; and Golden Eagle, a panel inspection and metrology system to address the challenges fanout wafer level packaging applications.