Camtek Ltd. (NASDAQ:CAMT) Short Interest Update

Camtek Ltd. (NASDAQ:CAMT) saw a large growth in short interest during the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 3,790,000 shares, a growth of 5.3% from the December 15th total of 3,600,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 499,700 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 7.6 days. Approximately 13.6% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC raised its position in Camtek by 14.5% in the second quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 4,851 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $605,000 after acquiring an additional 613 shares during the period. Hsbc Holdings PLC increased its holdings in shares of Camtek by 30.1% in the second quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 5,050 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $635,000 after purchasing an additional 1,169 shares during the period. Sei Investments Co. raised its position in shares of Camtek by 16.6% in the second quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 110,156 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $13,796,000 after buying an additional 15,683 shares in the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its stake in Camtek by 11.9% during the second quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 16,905 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $2,117,000 after buying an additional 1,797 shares during the period. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP grew its position in Camtek by 70.4% during the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 38,907 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $4,873,000 after buying an additional 16,078 shares in the last quarter. 41.93% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Camtek Trading Up 4.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ:CAMT traded up $4.68 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $103.62. 921,899 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 435,921. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 4.36 and a current ratio of 5.28. Camtek has a 12 month low of $69.83 and a 12 month high of $140.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.75, a P/E/G ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 1.33. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $80.58 and its 200 day moving average price is $87.82.

Camtek (NASDAQ:CAMT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 12th. The semiconductor company reported $0.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.69 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $112.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $108.51 million. Camtek had a return on equity of 24.21% and a net margin of 26.53%. The firm’s revenue was up 39.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.46 EPS. Analysts predict that Camtek will post 2.53 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently commented on CAMT. Cantor Fitzgerald assumed coverage on Camtek in a research report on Monday, January 13th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $100.00 price target for the company. Northland Securities increased their target price on Camtek from $102.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. StockNews.com raised Camtek from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. Barclays reduced their price objective on Camtek from $140.00 to $120.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $95.00 price target on shares of Camtek in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $112.44.

About Camtek

Camtek Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, develops, manufactures, and sells inspection and metrology equipment for semiconductor industry. The company provides Eagle-i, a system that delivers 2D inspection and metrology capabilities; Eagle-AP, which addresses the advanced packaging market using software and hardware technologies that deliver superior 2D and 3D inspection and metrology capabilities on the same platform; and Golden Eagle, a panel inspection and metrology system to address the challenges fanout wafer level packaging applications.