Bank Hapoalim BM Has $254,000 Position in Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI)

Bank Hapoalim BM lowered its position in Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI) by 36.0% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,219 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 685 shares during the period. Bank Hapoalim BM’s holdings in Nova were worth $254,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its position in Nova by 231.2% during the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 31,083 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $5,514,000 after purchasing an additional 21,699 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Nova by 1.5% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 987,071 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $175,087,000 after purchasing an additional 14,115 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC bought a new stake in Nova during the first quarter worth approximately $2,589,000. Sei Investments Co. boosted its position in shares of Nova by 12.7% in the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 128,423 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $22,780,000 after acquiring an additional 14,508 shares during the period. Finally, Westfield Capital Management Co. LP bought a new stake in shares of Nova in the first quarter valued at approximately $38,661,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on NVMI shares. Citigroup cut Nova from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $273.00 to $224.00 in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Benchmark increased their price objective on Nova from $215.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $226.80.

Nova Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:NVMI traded down $5.08 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $192.50. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 8,450 shares, compared to its average volume of 184,881. Nova Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $92.68 and a fifty-two week high of $247.21. The company has a market capitalization of $5.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.08, a P/E/G ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 1.46. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $202.80 and its 200-day simple moving average is $207.05.

Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The semiconductor company reported $1.61 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.18 by $0.43. Nova had a return on equity of 20.76% and a net margin of 27.38%. The company had revenue of $156.86 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $148.12 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.97 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 27.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Nova Ltd. will post 5.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Nova

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.