Camtek Ltd. (NASDAQ:CAMT) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

Camtek Ltd. (NASDAQ:CAMT) was the target of a large growth in short interest during 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 shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 438,800 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 5.4 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CAMT has been the subject of several research reports. B. Riley reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $102.00 target price on shares of Camtek in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Evercore ISI started coverage on Camtek in a research report on Tuesday. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $100.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on Camtek from $82.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Camtek currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $74.75.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Camtek

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of CAMT. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in Camtek by 11.8% in the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 38,173 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,164,000 after buying an additional 4,043 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Camtek by 9.1% during the 1st quarter. Renaissance Group LLC now owns 29,484 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $898,000 after purchasing an additional 2,454 shares during the period. UBS Group AG lifted its stake in shares of Camtek by 5,643.2% during the 1st quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 57,087 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,738,000 after purchasing an additional 56,093 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Camtek by 7.8% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 610,164 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $18,585,000 after purchasing an additional 44,158 shares during the period. Finally, Engineers Gate Manager LP purchased a new position in shares of Camtek during the 1st quarter worth $735,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 41.93% of the company’s stock.

Camtek Price Performance

Shares of CAMT traded up $5.05 on Tuesday, reaching $83.51. The stock had a trading volume of 389,625 shares, compared to its average volume of 429,718. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.75 billion, a PE ratio of 51.55, a PEG ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a quick ratio of 4.77, a current ratio of 5.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $81.05 and a 200 day moving average of $70.70. Camtek has a twelve month low of $24.89 and a twelve month high of $90.54.

Camtek (NASDAQ:CAMT) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The semiconductor company reported $0.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.04. Camtek had a return on equity of 18.92% and a net margin of 24.93%. The firm had revenue of $88.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $88.02 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.45 EPS. Camtek’s revenue was up 7.9% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Camtek will post 2.12 EPS for the current year.

Camtek Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a Variable dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 4th will be paid a $1.33 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 3rd. Camtek’s payout ratio is currently 82.10%.

Camtek Company Profile

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.