Wall Street Zen Upgrades Novanta (NASDAQ:NOVT) to Buy

Novanta (NASDAQ:NOVT - Get Free Report) was upgraded by stock analysts at Wall Street Zen from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report issued on Friday.

Separately, Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on shares of Novanta from $169.00 to $160.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 3rd.

Novanta Stock Performance

Shares of NOVT stock traded up $1.09 during trading on Friday, hitting $127.42. The company's stock had a trading volume of 126,045 shares, compared to its average volume of 215,437. The company has a market cap of $4.58 billion, a PE ratio of 76.30 and a beta of 1.51. The company has a current ratio of 2.79, a quick ratio of 1.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The business has a fifty day moving average of $119.77 and a 200-day moving average of $139.49. Novanta has a 52 week low of $98.76 and a 52 week high of $187.12.

Novanta (NASDAQ:NOVT - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The technology company reported $0.74 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.68 by $0.06. Novanta had a net margin of 6.52% and a return on equity of 15.20%. The firm had revenue of $233.37 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $233.34 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.74 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Novanta will post 3.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Novanta

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Empowered Funds LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Novanta during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Entropy Technologies LP bought a new position in shares of Novanta in the fourth quarter worth about $284,000. WCM Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Novanta during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $15,104,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its holdings in Novanta by 8.0% in the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 793,359 shares of the technology company's stock worth $119,757,000 after buying an additional 58,631 shares during the period. Finally, Values First Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Novanta by 34.6% in the fourth quarter. Values First Advisors Inc. now owns 1,660 shares of the technology company's stock worth $254,000 after acquiring an additional 427 shares during the period. 98.35% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Novanta Company Profile

Novanta, Inc engages in the provision of core technology solutions to healthcare and advanced industrial original equipment manufacturers. It operates through the following segments: Photonics, Vision, and Precision Motion. The Photonics segment designs, manufactures, and markets photonics-based solutions, including laser scanning and laser beam delivery, CO2 laser, continuous wave and ultrafast laser, and optical light engine products.

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