Principal Financial Group Inc. Buys 20,168 Shares of Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI)

Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI – Get Rating) by 7.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 276,981 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after acquiring an additional 20,168 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Nova were worth $22,624,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Y.D. More Investments Ltd bought a new position in Nova in the 4th quarter worth about $31,000. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC grew its stake in Nova by 109.0% in the 3rd quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 788 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $67,000 after acquiring an additional 411 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC grew its stake in Nova by 29.9% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,551 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $132,000 after acquiring an additional 357 shares in the last quarter. Atlas Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Nova during the third quarter valued at approximately $153,000. Finally, Prelude Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Nova during the first quarter valued at approximately $230,000. 70.02% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Nova in a research note on Thursday. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Needham & Company LLC increased their price objective on shares of Nova from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 14th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of Nova in a research note on Thursday, April 20th. They set a “buy” rating and a $115.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Benchmark increased their price objective on shares of Nova from $100.00 to $106.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $112.20.

Nova Trading Up 0.6 %

NASDAQ:NVMI opened at $100.40 on Friday. Nova Ltd. has a 52 week low of $67.40 and a 52 week high of $111.00. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $96.21 and a 200 day moving average of $90.76. The company has a quick ratio of 3.77, a current ratio of 4.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.71 and a beta of 1.25.

Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI – Get Rating) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 15th. The semiconductor company reported $1.17 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.12 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $151.24 million during the quarter. Nova had a net margin of 24.73% and a return on equity of 25.31%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Nova Ltd. will post 3.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Nova

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Nova Ltd. engages in the provision of metrology solutions for the semiconductor manufacturing industry. Its products and services include dimensional metrology, in-line materials and chemical metrology for semiconductor manufacturing and software solutions. The company was founded by Giora Dishon and Moshe Finarov in May 1993 and is headquartered in Rehovot, Israel.