Short Interest in Camtek Ltd. (NASDAQ:CAMT) Increases By 10.8%

Camtek Ltd. (NASDAQ:CAMT) was the target of a large growth in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,360,000 shares, a growth of 10.8% from the March 15th total of 2,130,000 shares. Currently, 8.6% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 438,800 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 5.4 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on CAMT. B. Riley restated a “buy” rating and issued a $102.00 price objective on shares of Camtek in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Camtek from $82.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. Finally, Evercore ISI began coverage on shares of Camtek in a report on Tuesday. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $100.00 price objective for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $74.75.

Institutional Trading of Camtek

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of CAMT. Nomura Holdings Inc. purchased a new stake in Camtek in the 4th quarter valued at $472,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd raised its position in Camtek by 602.2% in the 4th quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 154,209 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $10,704,000 after purchasing an additional 132,248 shares during the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its position in Camtek by 17.5% in the 4th quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 2,280 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $158,000 after purchasing an additional 340 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its position in Camtek by 46.6% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 171,541 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $11,902,000 after purchasing an additional 54,518 shares during the last quarter. Finally, TT International Asset Management LTD purchased a new stake in Camtek in the 4th quarter valued at $13,105,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 41.93% of the company’s stock.

Camtek Stock Up 6.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ:CAMT opened at $83.51 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.75 billion, a PE ratio of 51.55, a P/E/G ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a current ratio of 5.66, a quick ratio of 4.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41. Camtek has a twelve month low of $24.89 and a twelve month high of $90.54. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $81.05 and a 200-day simple moving average of $70.70.

Camtek (NASDAQ:CAMT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 20th. The semiconductor company reported $0.57 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $88.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $88.02 million. Camtek had a net margin of 24.93% and a return on equity of 18.92%. The company’s revenue was up 7.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.45 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Camtek will post 2.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Camtek Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a Variable dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 4th will be given a dividend of $1.33 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 3rd. Camtek’s dividend payout ratio is presently 82.10%.

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.