Signaturefd LLC Sells 158 Shares of Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI)

Signaturefd LLC lowered its stake in Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI) by 15.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 850 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 158 shares during the quarter. Signaturefd LLC’s holdings in Nova were worth $167,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Nova by 7.9% during the fourth quarter. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd now owns 1,383,339 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $272,517,000 after acquiring an additional 101,470 shares in the last quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Nova by 7.6% during the fourth quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 1,370,985 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $270,015,000 after acquiring an additional 97,000 shares in the last quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Nova by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. now owns 1,169,625 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $230,358,000 after acquiring an additional 11,915 shares in the last quarter. Meitav Investment House Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Nova by 10.1% during the fourth quarter. Meitav Investment House Ltd. now owns 713,003 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $140,455,000 after acquiring an additional 65,281 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Nova by 115.1% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 661,282 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $146,515,000 after acquiring an additional 353,906 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Cantor Fitzgerald decreased their target price on Nova from $315.00 to $300.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 14th. Citigroup raised Nova from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $226.00 to $240.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Benchmark upped their price target on Nova from $245.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Nova in a research note on Friday, February 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $250.83.

Nova Trading Down 2.1 %

NASDAQ NVMI opened at $196.76 on Friday. Nova Ltd. has a 12 month low of $158.00 and a 12 month high of $289.90. The stock has a market cap of $5.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.28, a P/E/G ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 1.46. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $238.47 and its 200-day moving average price is $210.63.

Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The semiconductor company reported $1.78 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by ($0.04). Nova had a return on equity of 22.33% and a net margin of 27.33%. The company had revenue of $194.77 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $186.50 million. As a group, analysts forecast that Nova Ltd. will post 7.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Nova 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.