Principal Financial Group Inc. Has $17.75 Million Stock Position in Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI)

Principal Financial Group Inc. reduced its stake in Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI) by 23.8% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 90,114 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 28,083 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Nova were worth $17,748,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Peregrine Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in Nova in the fourth quarter valued at $4,140,000. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Nova by 6.1% in the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,275 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $251,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its holdings in shares of Nova by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 7,753 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,527,000 after purchasing an additional 149 shares during the last quarter. Stephens Inc. AR acquired a new stake in shares of Nova during the 4th quarter worth about $2,813,000. Finally, Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. lifted its holdings in Nova by 7.6% during the 4th quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 1,370,985 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $270,015,000 after purchasing an additional 97,000 shares during the last quarter. 82.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have weighed in on NVMI. Citigroup raised shares of Nova from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $226.00 to $240.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Cantor Fitzgerald assumed coverage on Nova in a research report on Monday, January 13th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $275.00 price target on the stock. Benchmark lifted their price objective on Nova from $245.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Nova in a report on Friday, February 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Nova has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $246.67.

Nova Price Performance

NVMI stock opened at $259.15 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.53 billion, a PE ratio of 45.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 1.44. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $232.35 and a 200 day moving average price of $211.16. Nova Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $158.00 and a fifty-two week high of $289.90.

Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The semiconductor company reported $1.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.82 by ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $194.77 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $186.50 million. Nova had a net margin of 27.33% and a return on equity of 22.33%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Nova Ltd. will post 7.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Nova Company Profile

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.