William Blair Investment Management LLC Purchases 11,361 Shares of Novanta Inc. (NASDAQ:NOVT)

William Blair Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Novanta Inc. (NASDAQ:NOVT) by 1.2% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 975,841 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 11,361 shares during the period. William Blair Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Novanta were worth $149,079,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of NOVT. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Novanta by 13.1% during the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 8,512 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,523,000 after buying an additional 986 shares during the period. KBC Group NV increased its position in shares of Novanta by 14.9% during the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,059 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $189,000 after buying an additional 137 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Novanta by 1.7% during the third quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 25,957 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $4,644,000 after buying an additional 434 shares during the period. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Novanta by 1.5% during the third quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC now owns 43,241 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $7,737,000 after buying an additional 648 shares during the period. Finally, Chesapeake Capital Corp IL bought a new stake in shares of Novanta during the third quarter valued at about $435,000. 98.35% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on Novanta from $169.00 to $160.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 3rd.

Novanta Stock Up 1.2 %

NOVT stock opened at $136.07 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 2.79, a quick ratio of 1.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The company’s 50 day moving average is $145.79 and its 200 day moving average is $161.28. The stock has a market cap of $4.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 81.48 and a beta of 1.34. Novanta Inc. has a 1-year low of $133.17 and a 1-year high of $187.12.

Novanta (NASDAQ:NOVT) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The technology company reported $0.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.71 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $238.10 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $240.29 million. Novanta had a return on equity of 15.20% and a net margin of 6.52%. Novanta’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.63 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Novanta Inc. will post 3.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.