According to MarketBeat, shares of Nova Measuring Instruments Ltd. (NASDAQ:$NVMI) have an average recommendation of ‘Buy’. This is based on the recommendations from the six firms that are covering the stock. In total, the firm has five ‘Buy’ ratings and one ‘Hold’ rating. The average price target over the last year sits at $27.67.

Nova Measuring Instruments is a metrology solutions company that specializes in the semiconductor manufacturing industry. They offer in-line Optical and x-ray stand-alone metrology systems, as well as integrated systems that are attached directly to wafer fabrication process equipment.

Several firms have recently weighed in on the stock:

• Stifel Nicolaus: In a report on Monday, June 26th, Stifel Nicolaus gave the company a ‘Buy’ rating and increased their price target from $25.00 to $28.00.
• Zacks Investment Research: In a research report from Wednesday, July 12th, Zacks dropped the stock’s rating from a ‘Strong-Buy’ to a ‘Hold’.
• BidaskClub: In a report from Monday, July 31st, BidaskClub downgraded the stock from a ‘Buy’ to a ‘Hold’ rating.
• Needham & company LLC: In a research report on Friday, September 1st, Needham restated a ‘Buy’ rating and issued a $32.00 price objective.
• ValuEngine: In a research report from Monday, October 2nd, ValuEngine downgraded their rating from ‘Strong-Buy’ to ‘Buy’.

On Friday, shares of Nova Measuring Instruments opened at $28.49. They currently have a market cap of $787.89 million, a beta of 0.91, and a P/E ratio of 26.04. Their 50 and 200-day moving averages sit at $25.30 and $23.12 respectively. The current 52-week low is $11.64 and the 52-week high is $30.72.

They announced their latest quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 2nd. They reported $0.52 earnings per share, $0.12 above the Reuters’ consensus of $0.40. During the same quarter last year, the company reported a $0.17 EPS. Analysts expect annualized EPS of $1.79 in the current year.

Multiple firms have also recently altered their stakes in the company;

• Navellier & Associates Inc bought an additional 6,036 shares during the 2nd quarter, an increase of 26.1% for a total of 29,166 shares valued at $644,000.
• Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public Schools Employees Retirement System bought an additional 5,838 shares during the second quarter, an increase of 31.9%, for a total of 24,116 shares valued at $533,000.
• Edmond DE Rothschild Holdings S.A. bought an additional 2,141 shares during the 2nd quarter. An increase of 8.4%, for a total of 27,591 shares valued at $633,000.
• UBS Group AG (NYSE:$UBS) bought 638 shares during the 1st quarter, an increase of 11.1%, for a total of 6,389 shares valued at $118,000.
• State Street Corp (NYSE:$STT) bought 216 shares during the 2nd quarter, an increase of 1.6%, for a total of 13,816 shares valued at $305,000.

Institutional investors currently hold 39.85% of the company’s total stock.

Featured Image: novameasuring.com