D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. Takes $3.68 Million Position in Novanta Inc. (NASDAQ:NOVT)

D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Novanta Inc. (NASDAQ:NOVT) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 24,094 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,681,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Novanta by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,123,828 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $629,997,000 after purchasing an additional 62,585 shares in the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its stake in shares of Novanta by 6.2% during the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 1,004,879 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $153,515,000 after purchasing an additional 58,864 shares in the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Novanta by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 975,841 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $149,079,000 after purchasing an additional 11,361 shares in the last quarter. Geneva Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Novanta by 9.3% during the 4th quarter. Geneva Capital Management LLC now owns 852,638 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $130,257,000 after purchasing an additional 72,592 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its stake in shares of Novanta by 8.0% during the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 793,359 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $119,757,000 after purchasing an additional 58,631 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.35% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Robert W. Baird cut their target price on shares of Novanta from $169.00 to $160.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 3rd.

Novanta Trading Up 1.2%

Shares of NASDAQ NOVT opened at $131.17 on Monday. Novanta Inc. has a 1 year low of $98.76 and a 1 year high of $187.12. The stock has a market cap of $4.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 78.55 and a beta of 1.51. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $122.70 and a 200 day moving average of $144.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 2.79 and a quick ratio of 1.81.

Novanta (NASDAQ:NOVT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The technology company reported $0.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.68 by $0.06. Novanta had a net margin of 6.52% and a return on equity of 15.20%. The company had revenue of $233.37 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $233.34 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.74 EPS. Novanta’s revenue was up 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Novanta Inc. will post 3.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Novanta Company Profile

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.