Geode Capital Management LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Novanta Inc. $NOVT

Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Novanta Inc. (NASDAQ:NOVT) by 1.4% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 919,666 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 12,789 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Novanta were worth $118,585,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. SVB Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Novanta during the 1st quarter valued at about $48,000. CWM LLC grew its position in shares of Novanta by 329.8% in the 1st quarter. CWM LLC now owns 404 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $52,000 after buying an additional 310 shares during the last quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. bought a new position in shares of Novanta during the second quarter valued at approximately $52,000. Signaturefd LLC lifted its stake in Novanta by 80.0% in the first quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 414 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $53,000 after acquiring an additional 184 shares during the period. Finally, Summit Securities Group LLC bought a new stake in Novanta in the first quarter valued at $62,000. 98.35% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have commented on the stock. Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on shares of Novanta from $139.00 to $133.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 11th. Zacks Research raised shares of Novanta from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Novanta from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Saturday, October 25th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded Novanta from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, August 11th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Novanta currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $133.00.

Novanta Price Performance

Shares of NOVT opened at $100.65 on Thursday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $111.18 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $119.01. Novanta Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $98.27 and a fifty-two week high of $175.83. The stock has a market cap of $3.60 billion, a PE ratio of 59.21 and a beta of 1.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a quick ratio of 1.62 and a current ratio of 2.54.

Novanta (NASDAQ:NOVT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 3rd. The technology company reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.06. Novanta had a return on equity of 14.70% and a net margin of 6.41%.The company had revenue of $247.84 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $245.95 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.85 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Novanta has set its FY 2025 guidance at 3.240-3.300 EPS. Q4 2025 guidance at 0.870-0.930 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Novanta Inc. will post 3.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Novanta declared that its board has initiated a stock repurchase program on Thursday, September 18th that authorizes the company to repurchase $200.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the technology company to buy up to 4.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Novanta Profile

Novanta, Inc engages in the provision of core technology solutions to healthcare and advanced industrial original equipment manufacturers. It operates through the following segments: Photonics, Vision, and Precision Motion. The Photonics segment designs, manufactures, and markets photonics-based solutions, including laser scanning and laser beam delivery, CO2 laser, continuous wave and ultrafast laser, and optical light engine products.