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

Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI)’s stock price gapped down before the market opened 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 trading hands.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on NVMI shares. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Nova in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of Nova from $290.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Benchmark increased their target price on shares of Nova from $280.00 to $345.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Nova currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $307.00.

Nova Stock Down 2.0%

The company’s 50-day moving average price is $312.28 and its 200-day moving average price is $263.96. The firm has a market cap of $9.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.79.

Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The semiconductor company reported $2.16 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $224.61 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $221.61 million. Nova had a net margin of 29.10% and a return on equity of 24.36%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 25.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.74 EPS. Nova has set its Q4 2025 guidance at 2.020-2.200 EPS. Q4 2025 guidance at 2.020-2.200 EPS. Analysts predict that Nova Ltd. will post 7.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Nova

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. increased its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 166,672 shares during the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Nova by 69.2% in the 2nd quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 359,221 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $98,857,000 after buying an additional 146,932 shares in the last quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. grew its holdings 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 buying an additional 129,684 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Nova in the 1st quarter worth $22,647,000. Finally, Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Nova by 7.8% during the 1st quarter. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd now owns 1,490,554 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $274,254,000 after acquiring an additional 107,215 shares during the period. 82.99% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.