Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI) Now Covered by Evercore ISI

Stock analysts at Evercore ISI began coverage on shares of Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI) in a note issued to investors on Tuesday, MarketBeat reports. The firm set an “outperform” rating and a $210.00 price target on the semiconductor company’s stock. Evercore ISI’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 23.44% from the stock’s current price.

Separately, Benchmark raised their target price on shares of Nova from $150.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Nova has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $170.67.

Nova Stock Performance

Shares of NVMI stock opened at $170.12 on Tuesday. Nova has a one year low of $87.85 and a one year high of $190.51. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $172.35 and its 200-day simple moving average is $140.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.75, a PEG ratio of 6.46 and a beta of 1.41.

Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The semiconductor company reported $1.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.07 by $0.14. Nova had a net margin of 26.32% and a return on equity of 20.55%. The firm had revenue of $134.22 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $128.00 million. As a group, research analysts forecast that Nova will post 4.87 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Nova

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in NVMI. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Nova by 74.9% during the fourth quarter. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd now owns 604,977 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $83,202,000 after buying an additional 259,021 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Nova by 118.1% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 428,132 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $48,139,000 after buying an additional 231,862 shares during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Nova by 262.1% during the fourth quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 230,497 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $18,827,000 after buying an additional 166,836 shares during the last quarter. Sphera Funds Management LTD. acquired a new position in shares of Nova during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $18,135,000. Finally, Nuveen Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Nova during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $17,150,000. Institutional investors own 82.99% of the company’s stock.

Nova Company 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.