Traders Purchase High Volume of Camtek Put Options (NASDAQ:CAMT)

Camtek Ltd. (NASDAQ:CAMT) saw some unusual options trading activity on Thursday. Stock investors purchased 4,034 put options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 229% compared to the typical volume of 1,225 put options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on CAMT. B. Riley reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $102.00 price target on shares of Camtek in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Barclays upped their target price on Camtek from $82.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. Finally, Evercore ISI assumed coverage on Camtek in a report on Tuesday. They set an “outperform” rating and a $100.00 price target for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Camtek presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $74.75.

Camtek Stock Up 1.9 %

NASDAQ CAMT traded up $1.50 during trading on Thursday, hitting $81.86. 68,291 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 423,404. Camtek has a 12 month low of $24.89 and a 12 month high of $90.54. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $81.10 and a 200 day simple moving average of $70.77. The company has a market capitalization of $3.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 49.60, a PEG ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a current ratio of 5.66, a quick ratio of 4.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41.

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

Camtek Dividend Announcement

The company 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 $1.33 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 3rd. Camtek’s payout ratio is 82.10%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

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

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.