Legal & General Group Plc Buys Shares of 263,741 Novanta Inc. $NOVT

Legal & General Group Plc bought a new stake in Novanta Inc. (NASDAQ:NOVT) during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund bought 263,741 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $42,789,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its stake in shares of Novanta by 27.0% during the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,776,694 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $210,307,000 after buying an additional 377,232 shares during the last quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Novanta by 3.4% in the fourth quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,458,259 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $173,518,000 after acquiring an additional 47,540 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Novanta by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,319,474 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $157,004,000 after acquiring an additional 13,603 shares during the last quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP grew its holdings in Novanta by 10.6% during the 2nd quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 1,100,029 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $141,827,000 after acquiring an additional 104,985 shares during the period. Finally, Bamco Inc. NY grew its holdings in Novanta by 49.4% during the 4th quarter. Bamco Inc. NY now owns 936,962 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $111,489,000 after acquiring an additional 309,869 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.35% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Novanta news, CEO Matthijs Glastra sold 6,500 shares of Novanta stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $161.13, for a total transaction of $1,047,345.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 29,761 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,795,389.93. The trade was a 17.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders own 1.20% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have commented on NOVT shares. Robert W. Baird set a $194.00 target price on shares of Novanta in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Novanta from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Sunday, August 9th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Novanta in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded Novanta from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $194.00.

Novanta Stock Down 1.7%

Novanta stock opened at $142.20 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $152.24 and its 200 day simple moving average is $143.33. Novanta Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $98.27 and a fifty-two week high of $176.38. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 91.15 and a beta of 1.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 4.57 and a quick ratio of 3.79.

Novanta (NASDAQ:NOVT) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The technology company reported $0.89 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.83 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $265.81 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $262.30 million. Novanta had a net margin of 6.00% and a return on equity of 10.83%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.76 earnings per share. Novanta has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.680-3.740 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 0.950-1.000 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Novanta Inc. will post 3.7 EPS for the current year.

Novanta Profile

Novanta, Inc (NASDAQ: NOVT) is a global technology company that designs and manufactures precision components, subsystems and software used in advanced photonics and motion control applications. The company serves customers in the medical device and advanced industrial markets, supplying critical technologies for diagnostics and therapeutic systems, semiconductor and electronics manufacturing, and scientific instrumentation. Novanta’s product portfolio includes laser control modules, optics, beam delivery systems, high-precision motors, actuators, stages, and fluidics solutions designed to meet stringent accuracy and reliability requirements.

Novanta’s Photonics segment delivers laser and energy delivery components that enable minimally invasive surgical procedures and diagnostic imaging.