Short Interest in Camtek Ltd. (NASDAQ:CAMT) Increases By 5.3%

Camtek Ltd. (NASDAQ:CAMT) saw a significant growth in short interest in January. As of January 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,790,000 shares, a growth of 5.3% from the December 31st total of 3,600,000 shares. Currently, 13.6% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 499,700 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 7.6 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Camtek from $140.00 to $120.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 17th. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and issued a $105.00 target price on shares of Camtek in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $95.00 price target on shares of Camtek in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. Cantor Fitzgerald started coverage on Camtek in a research report on Monday, January 13th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $100.00 price objective for the company. Finally, StockNews.com raised Camtek from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $112.44.

Institutional Trading of Camtek

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd lifted its stake in Camtek by 21.5% in the 3rd quarter. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd now owns 1,515,452 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $121,734,000 after buying an additional 268,258 shares in the last quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Camtek by 32.6% in the fourth quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 1,135,453 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $91,711,000 after acquiring an additional 279,000 shares in the last quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Camtek by 9.3% in the fourth quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. now owns 963,874 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $77,852,000 after acquiring an additional 81,709 shares in the last quarter. Meitav Investment House Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Camtek by 119.3% during the fourth quarter. Meitav Investment House Ltd. now owns 818,123 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $66,159,000 after acquiring an additional 445,079 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Two Sigma Advisers LP increased its position in Camtek by 107.5% during the 3rd quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 720,700 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $57,548,000 after purchasing an additional 373,400 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 41.93% of the company’s stock.

Camtek Stock Performance

NASDAQ:CAMT opened at $89.25 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.05 billion, a PE ratio of 41.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 1.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 5.28 and a quick ratio of 4.36. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $84.84 and its 200 day moving average price is $84.99. Camtek has a 12 month low of $69.83 and a 12 month high of $140.50.

Camtek (NASDAQ:CAMT) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, November 12th. The semiconductor company reported $0.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.69 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $112.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $108.51 million. Camtek had a net margin of 26.53% and a return on equity of 24.21%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 39.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.46 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Camtek will post 2.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Camtek

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.