Westfield Capital Management Co. LP Cuts Stock Position in Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI)

Westfield Capital Management Co. LP decreased its position in shares of Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI) by 92.8% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 12,943 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 166,891 shares during the period. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP’s holdings in Nova were worth $2,697,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Russell Investments Group Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Nova by 46.2% during the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 1,038 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $184,000 after purchasing an additional 328 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Nova by 1.5% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 987,071 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $175,087,000 after buying an additional 14,115 shares in the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC purchased a new position in Nova in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $2,589,000. Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Nova in the first quarter worth $536,000. Finally, Burney Co. purchased a new stake in shares of Nova during the first quarter worth $211,000. 82.99% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently commented on NVMI. Citigroup cut Nova from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $273.00 to $224.00 in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Benchmark upped their target price on shares of Nova from $240.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Nova in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Nova presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $227.80.

Nova Stock Performance

Shares of NVMI stock opened at $176.10 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $194.30 and its two-hundred day moving average is $208.95. Nova Ltd. has a 1 year low of $123.44 and a 1 year high of $247.21. The firm has a market cap of $5.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.85, a PEG ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.47.

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.