Onto Innovation Inc. (NYSE:ONTO) Short Interest Update

Onto Innovation Inc. (NYSE:ONTO) was the target of a significant increase in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,500,000 shares, an increase of 25.0% from the March 15th total of 1,200,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,080,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.4 days. Approximately 3.1% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Insider Transactions at Onto Innovation

In other Onto Innovation news, CEO Michael P. Plisinski sold 35,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $219.19, for a total transaction of $7,671,650.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 150,492 shares in the company, valued at $32,986,341.48. The trade was a 18.87 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 0.72% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Onto Innovation

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Onto Innovation by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,166,137 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $861,040,000 after purchasing an additional 76,233 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in shares of Onto Innovation by 9.2% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,192,238 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $365,380,000 after buying an additional 183,839 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its holdings in Onto Innovation by 21.2% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,553,271 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $258,883,000 after acquiring an additional 271,470 shares during the period. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership raised its position in Onto Innovation by 41.6% in the fourth quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 1,515,152 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $252,530,000 after acquiring an additional 444,860 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in Onto Innovation by 33.9% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,406,034 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $234,344,000 after acquiring an additional 356,161 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.35% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ONTO has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on Onto Innovation from $200.00 to $180.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $230.00 target price on shares of Onto Innovation in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on Onto Innovation from $245.00 to $175.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 28th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Onto Innovation from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Onto Innovation in a research report on Friday, February 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Onto Innovation currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $218.13.

Onto Innovation Trading Up 0.0 %

Shares of NYSE ONTO traded up $0.03 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $114.92. 613,059 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 793,315. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $135.91 and a 200 day simple moving average of $169.08. The stock has a market cap of $5.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.30, a PEG ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.46. Onto Innovation has a 1 year low of $98.21 and a 1 year high of $238.93.

Onto Innovation (NYSE:ONTO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The semiconductor company reported $1.51 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.41 by $0.10. Onto Innovation had a return on equity of 14.24% and a net margin of 20.43%. As a group, analysts forecast that Onto Innovation will post 6.26 earnings per share for the current year.

About Onto Innovation

Onto Innovation Inc engages in the design, development, manufacture, and support of process control tools that performs optical metrology. The company offers lithography systems and process control analytical software. It also offers process and yield management solutions, and device packaging and test facilities through standalone systems for optical metrology, macro-defect inspection, packaging lithography, and transparent and opaque thin film measurements.