James Investment Research Inc. Reduces Stake in Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI)

James Investment Research Inc. has reduced its stake in Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI - Free Report) by 8.9% during the third quarter, as indicated in its latest report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). After selling 4,479 shares during this quarter, the firm now holds a total of 45,687 shares of the semiconductor company. Nova Ltd. represents approximately 1.1% of James Investment Research Inc.'s investment portfolio, making it the firm's 23rd largest holding. As per the recent SEC filing, James Investment Research Inc.'s investment in Nova is valued at about $9,518,000, which correlates to ownership of 0.16% of Nova's total shares.

Additionally, several other institutional investors and hedge funds have adjusted their positions in Nova. The Employees Retirement System of Texas initiated a new stake in Nova shares in the second quarter, valued at around $68,000. Similarly, FSC Wealth Advisors LLC entered a new stake worth approximately $79,000 during the same period. Signaturefd LLC enhanced its holdings in Nova by 15.9%, now owning 767 shares valued at $180,000 after acquiring an additional 105 shares in the last quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN also entered a new position in the second quarter, estimated at about $205,000, followed by The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company, which invested approximately $211,000 in the same quarter. Overall, institutional investors and hedge funds collectively own 82.99% of Nova's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Opinions

Recent evaluations from several research firms concerning Nova have highlighted significant changes. Citigroup downgraded Nova from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating, revising its price target for the stock downward from $273.00 to $224.00 in a report dated September 16th. Conversely, Benchmark raised its price target from $215.00 to $240.00 while maintaining a "buy" rating on the stock in their research note released on August 9th. Currently, two research analysts have assigned a hold rating, while four others have rated it a buy. According to MarketBeat, Nova carries a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and has a consensus target price of $226.80.

Performance of Nova Stock

On Friday, Nova stock opened at $184.99. The company has a market capitalization of $5.37 billion, displaying a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.46, a PEG ratio of 2.04, and a beta of 1.46. Over the past few months, the stock has had a fifty-day moving average price of $201.28 and a 200-day moving average price of $207.00. The past year has seen Nova's stock reach a low of $98.19 and a high of $247.21.

In recent earnings results disclosed last on August 8th, Nova reported earnings per share (EPS) of $1.61 for the quarter, surpassing analysts' expectations of $1.18 by $0.43. The company achieved a revenue of $156.86 million for the quarter, exceeding the consensus estimate of $148.12 million. Nova demonstrated a net margin of 27.38% and a return on equity of 20.76%. Revenue increased by 27.8% compared to the same quarter in the previous year, where the firm had earned $0.97 EPS. Analysts project that Nova Ltd. will deliver an EPS of 5.63 for the current year.

About Nova Ltd.

Nova Ltd. specializes in designing, developing, producing, and selling process control systems utilized in semiconductor manufacturing across various regions, including Israel, Taiwan, the United States, China, Korea, and beyond. The product line features metrology platforms targeting dimensional, films, materials, and chemical metrology measurements essential for process control throughout different stages of semiconductor manufacturing, such as lithography, etch, chemical mechanical planarization, deposition, electrochemical plating, and advanced packaging.

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