HighTower Advisors LLC Lowers Position in Nova Ltd. $NVMI

HighTower Advisors LLC lowered its stake in shares of Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI) by 36.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 10,578 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 6,132 shares during the quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in Nova were worth $5,743,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Nova by 9.4% during the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 280 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $92,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Nova by 2.7% in the 1st quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 1,124 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $488,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Nova by 20.0% in the first quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 264 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $115,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Nova by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 4,997 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,641,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its position in shares of Nova by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 10,885 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $3,642,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. 82.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $600.00 price target on shares of Nova in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Nova from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Evercore set a $475.00 target price on Nova in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Wall Street Zen raised Nova from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 16th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Nova from $494.00 to $540.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, July 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $514.44.

Nova Price Performance

NASDAQ NVMI opened at $366.03 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $406.29 and its 200-day moving average is $462.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.30, a PEG ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.76. Nova Ltd. has a one year low of $266.43 and a one year high of $615.99.

Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 7th. The semiconductor company reported $2.51 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.41 by $0.10. Nova had a net margin of 28.84% and a return on equity of 21.41%. The company had revenue of $254.96 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $250.33 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.20 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.9% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Nova Ltd. will post 9.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Nova announced that its board has initiated a share buyback program on Wednesday, September 2nd that permits the company to repurchase $200.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the semiconductor company to purchase up to 1.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at Nova

In other news, Director Yaniv Garty sold 366 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $581.20, for a total transaction of $212,719.20. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 2,006 shares in the company, valued at $1,165,887.20. This trade represents a 15.43% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Eitan Oppenhaim sold 1,290 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $581.20, for a total value of $749,748.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 6,421 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,731,885.20. The trade was a 16.73% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 6,942 shares of company stock valued at $3,419,027 in the last three months. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

About Nova

Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ: NVMI) is an Israel-based provider of metrology and process-control solutions for the semiconductor manufacturing industry. The company develops systems that help chip manufacturers measure and control critical process parameters during wafer fabrication, supporting the production of increasingly small and complex semiconductor devices.

Nova’s product portfolio includes optical and x-ray metrology systems, dimensional and materials measurement solutions, chemical metrology tools, and integrated metrology systems that can be incorporated into semiconductor production equipment.