William Blair Investment Management LLC Cuts Position in Novanta Inc. $NOVT

William Blair Investment Management LLC cut its stake in Novanta Inc. (NASDAQ:NOVT) by 5.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 908,906 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 51,667 shares during the quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC owned about 2.54% of Novanta worth $108,151,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Assetmark Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Novanta by 22.4% in the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 541 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $64,000 after acquiring an additional 99 shares during the period. Arizona State Retirement System boosted its position in shares of Novanta by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 10,632 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,065,000 after purchasing an additional 171 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Novanta by 120.1% in the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 427 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $51,000 after purchasing an additional 233 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its position in shares of Novanta by 17.2% in the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,627 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $163,000 after purchasing an additional 239 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi boosted its position in shares of Novanta by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Amundi now owns 18,287 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,908,000 after purchasing an additional 245 shares in the last quarter. 98.35% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on NOVT shares. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Novanta in a research report on Friday, April 17th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Novanta from $144.00 to $173.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 13th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut Novanta from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, April 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $173.00.

Novanta Stock Performance

Shares of NOVT opened at $159.70 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $129.84 and a two-hundred day moving average of $127.28. Novanta Inc. has a one year low of $98.27 and a one year high of $165.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 2.69 and a current ratio of 3.56. The stock has a market cap of $5.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 115.73 and a beta of 1.62.

Novanta (NASDAQ:NOVT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 11th. The technology company reported $0.81 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.78 by $0.03. Novanta had a return on equity of 12.06% and a net margin of 5.35%.The company had revenue of $257.71 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $253.40 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.74 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 10.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Novanta has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.500-3.650 EPS and its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.810-0.860 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Novanta Inc. will post 3.59 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Novanta

In other news, CFO Robert Buckley sold 9,957 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $116.77, for a total value of $1,162,678.89. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 96,616 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,281,850.32. The trade was a 9.34% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Matthijs Glastra sold 7,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.43, for a total value of $1,128,225.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 42,761 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,432,537.23. This trade represents a 14.92% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 23,957 shares of company stock valued at $3,136,229. 1.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Novanta Profile

Novanta, Inc (NASDAQ: NOVT) is a global technology company that designs and manufactures precision components, subsystems and software used in advanced photonics and motion control applications. The company serves customers in the medical device and advanced industrial markets, supplying critical technologies for diagnostics and therapeutic systems, semiconductor and electronics manufacturing, and scientific instrumentation. Novanta’s product portfolio includes laser control modules, optics, beam delivery systems, high-precision motors, actuators, stages, and fluidics solutions designed to meet stringent accuracy and reliability requirements.

Novanta’s Photonics segment delivers laser and energy delivery components that enable minimally invasive surgical procedures and diagnostic imaging.