Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI) Shares Gap Down – Time to Sell?

Shares of Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI) gapped down prior to trading on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $342.22, but opened at $304.99. Nova shares last traded at $305.5040, with a volume of 172,861 shares changing hands.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Nova in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $282.50.

Nova Stock Performance

The stock has a market cap of $9.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.50, a P/E/G ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.76. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $310.64 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $262.67.

Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The semiconductor company reported $2.20 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.05 by $0.15. Nova had a net margin of 29.10% and a return on equity of 24.36%. The business had revenue of $219.99 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $214.95 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.61 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 40.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Nova Ltd. will post 7.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Nova by 13.1% in the second quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 1,437,657 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $395,643,000 after buying an additional 166,672 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Nova by 69.2% during the 2nd quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 359,221 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $98,857,000 after purchasing an additional 146,932 shares during the last quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. lifted its stake in Nova by 10.7% in the 2nd quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. now owns 1,342,169 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $369,365,000 after purchasing an additional 129,684 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in Nova during the first quarter worth about $22,647,000. Finally, Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd raised its stake in Nova by 7.8% in the first quarter. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd now owns 1,490,554 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $274,254,000 after buying an additional 107,215 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.99% of the company’s stock.

About Nova

Nova Ltd. designs, develops, produces, and sells process control systems used in the manufacture of semiconductors in Israel, Taiwan, the United States, China, Korea, and internationally. Its product portfolio includes a set of metrology platforms for dimensional, films, and materials and chemical metrology measurements for process control for various semiconductor manufacturing process steps, including lithography, etch, chemical mechanical planarization, deposition, electrochemical plating, and advanced packaging.