Novanta (NASDAQ:NOVT) Hits New 52-Week Low After Analyst Downgrade

Novanta Inc. (NASDAQ:NOVT)’s share price reached a new 52-week low during trading on Tuesday after Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on the stock from $169.00 to $160.00. Robert W. Baird currently has a neutral rating on the stock. Novanta traded as low as $136.02 and last traded at $139.83, with a volume of 300155 shares. The stock had previously closed at $143.37.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of NOVT. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Novanta during the fourth quarter worth approximately $48,442,000. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Novanta by 69.9% during the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 680,169 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $103,910,000 after purchasing an additional 279,793 shares during the period. WCM Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Novanta in the 4th quarter worth approximately $15,104,000. Schroder Investment Management Group raised its stake in shares of Novanta by 52.5% in the 4th quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 271,583 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $41,359,000 after buying an additional 93,511 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC lifted its holdings in Novanta by 2,714.7% in the 4th quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 88,297 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $13,489,000 after acquiring an additional 85,160 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.35% of the company’s stock.

Novanta Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 1.81 and a current ratio of 2.79. The company has a market cap of $5.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 85.43 and a beta of 1.34. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $147.87 and its 200-day moving average price is $163.53.

Novanta (NASDAQ:NOVT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 25th. The technology company reported $0.76 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.71 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $238.10 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $240.29 million. Novanta had a return on equity of 15.20% and a net margin of 6.52%. The company’s revenue was up 12.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.63 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Novanta Inc. will post 3.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Novanta

Novanta, Inc engages in the provision of core technology solutions to healthcare and advanced industrial original equipment manufacturers. It operates through the following segments: Photonics, Vision, and Precision Motion. The Photonics segment designs, manufactures, and markets photonics-based solutions, including laser scanning and laser beam delivery, CO2 laser, continuous wave and ultrafast laser, and optical light engine products.