Novanta (NASDAQ:NOVT) Reaches New 12-Month Low – What’s Next?

Novanta Inc. (NASDAQ:NOVT) shares hit a new 52-week low during trading on Friday . The company traded as low as $131.02 and last traded at $131.96, with a volume of 87338 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $134.21.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on Novanta from $169.00 to $160.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 3rd.

Novanta Stock Down 1.7 %

The stock has a 50-day moving average of $144.59 and a 200 day moving average of $160.29. The company has a market capitalization of $4.74 billion, a PE ratio of 78.90 and a beta of 1.34. The company has a quick ratio of 1.81, a current ratio of 2.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61.

Novanta (NASDAQ:NOVT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 25th. The technology company reported $0.76 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.71 by $0.05. Novanta had a return on equity of 15.20% and a net margin of 6.52%. The business had revenue of $238.10 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $240.29 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.63 earnings per share. Novanta’s revenue was up 12.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Novanta Inc. will post 3.03 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Novanta

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of NOVT. Norges Bank bought a new position in Novanta during the fourth quarter valued at $48,442,000. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Novanta by 69.9% in the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 680,169 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $103,910,000 after acquiring an additional 279,793 shares during the period. WCM Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Novanta in the fourth quarter worth $15,104,000. Schroder Investment Management Group boosted its holdings in shares of Novanta by 52.5% in the fourth quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 271,583 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $41,359,000 after acquiring an additional 93,511 shares during the period. Finally, Millennium Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Novanta by 2,714.7% in the fourth quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 88,297 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $13,489,000 after acquiring an additional 85,160 shares during the period. 98.35% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Novanta

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.