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

Camtek Ltd. (NASDAQ:CAMT) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest in December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 3,790,000 shares, an increase of 5.3% from the December 15th total of 3,600,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 499,700 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 7.6 days. Currently, 13.6% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Advisors Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Camtek by 78.8% in the 3rd quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 329 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 145 shares in the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new position in shares of Camtek in the third quarter worth $53,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its position in shares of Camtek by 23,300.0% during the second quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 468 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $59,000 after acquiring an additional 466 shares during the last quarter. Gateway Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in Camtek during the second quarter valued at $220,000. Finally, Susquehanna International Group Ltd. bought a new stake in Camtek in the 2nd quarter valued at $237,000. Institutional investors own 41.93% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently commented on CAMT. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $105.00 price objective on shares of Camtek in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Cantor Fitzgerald initiated coverage on shares of Camtek in a research note on Monday, January 13th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $100.00 price target for the company. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Camtek from $140.00 to $120.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Northland Securities lifted their target price on shares of Camtek from $102.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $95.00 price target on shares of Camtek in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $112.44.

Camtek Stock Performance

Shares of CAMT stock traded up $4.68 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $103.62. 921,899 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 435,921. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 4.36 and a current ratio of 5.28. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.70 billion, a PE ratio of 47.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 1.33. Camtek has a 12 month low of $69.83 and a 12 month high of $140.50. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $80.58 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $87.82.

Camtek (NASDAQ:CAMT) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, November 12th. The semiconductor company reported $0.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.69 by $0.06. Camtek had a net margin of 26.53% and a return on equity of 24.21%. The company had revenue of $112.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $108.51 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.46 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 39.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Camtek will post 2.53 EPS for the current year.

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.