Short Interest in Camtek Ltd. (NASDAQ:CAMT) Increases By 10.8%

Camtek Ltd. (NASDAQ:CAMT) was the target of a large increase in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,360,000 shares, an increase of 10.8% from the March 15th total of 2,130,000 shares. Approximately 8.6% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 438,800 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 5.4 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CAMT has been the topic of several recent research reports. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Camtek from $82.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. Evercore ISI initiated coverage on shares of Camtek in a research report on Tuesday. They set an “outperform” rating and a $100.00 target price on the stock. Finally, B. Riley restated a “buy” rating and set a $102.00 target price on shares of Camtek in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $74.75.

Camtek Price Performance

Shares of CAMT stock opened at $83.51 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 5.66 and a quick ratio of 4.77. The company has a market capitalization of $3.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 51.55, a P/E/G ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 1.41. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $81.05 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $70.70. Camtek has a one year low of $24.89 and a one year high of $90.54.

Camtek (NASDAQ:CAMT) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The semiconductor company reported $0.57 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.04. Camtek had a net margin of 24.93% and a return on equity of 18.92%. The business had revenue of $88.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $88.02 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.45 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Camtek will post 2.12 EPS for the current year.

Camtek Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a Variable dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 4th will be paid a dividend of $1.33 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 3rd. Camtek’s dividend payout ratio is presently 82.10%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Camtek

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of CAMT. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in Camtek by 11.8% during the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 38,173 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,164,000 after acquiring an additional 4,043 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Group LLC lifted its position in Camtek by 9.1% during the first quarter. Renaissance Group LLC now owns 29,484 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $898,000 after acquiring an additional 2,454 shares during the last quarter. UBS Group AG lifted its position in Camtek by 5,643.2% during the first quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 57,087 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,738,000 after acquiring an additional 56,093 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in Camtek by 7.8% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 610,164 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $18,585,000 after acquiring an additional 44,158 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Engineers Gate Manager LP purchased a new stake in Camtek during the first quarter valued at approximately $735,000. 41.93% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Camtek Company Profile

Camtek Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, develops, manufactures, and sells inspection and metrology equipment for semiconductor industry. The company provides Eagle-i, a system that delivers 2D inspection and metrology capabilities; Eagle-AP, which addresses the advanced packaging market using software and hardware technologies that deliver superior 2D and 3D inspection and metrology capabilities on the same platform; and Golden Eagle, a panel inspection and metrology system to address the challenges fanout wafer level packaging applications.