Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio Acquires Shares of 94,316 Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI)

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio purchased a new position in shares of Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI) during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 94,316 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,659,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Nova during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $490,000. Two Sigma Advisers LP raised its position in shares of Nova by 121.9% during the 3rd quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 145,100 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $30,230,000 after purchasing an additional 79,700 shares during the period. Sphera Funds Management LTD. acquired a new stake in shares of Nova during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $10,825,000. Stifel Financial Corp increased its position in Nova by 47.3% in the 3rd quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 2,852 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $594,000 after acquiring an additional 916 shares during the period. Finally, Quadrature Capital Ltd acquired a new stake in Nova in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $967,000. 82.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently commented on the company. Citigroup cut Nova from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $273.00 to $224.00 in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Nova in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Finally, Benchmark raised their target price on Nova from $240.00 to $245.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Nova presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $227.80.

Nova Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ NVMI opened at $190.30 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $190.66 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $207.70. The firm has a market cap of $5.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.50, a PEG ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 1.44. Nova Ltd. has a 1 year low of $127.47 and a 1 year high of $247.21.

About Nova

Nova Ltd. designs, develops, produces, and sells process control systems used in the manufacture of semiconductors in Israel, Taiwan, the United States, China, Korea, and internationally. Its product portfolio includes a set of metrology platforms for dimensional, films, and materials and chemical metrology measurements for process control for various semiconductor manufacturing process steps, including lithography, etch, chemical mechanical planarization, deposition, electrochemical plating, and advanced packaging.