Camtek Ltd. (NASDAQ:CAMT) Short Interest Up 5.3% in December

Camtek Ltd. (NASDAQ:CAMT) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 3,790,000 shares, a growth of 5.3% from the December 15th total of 3,600,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 499,700 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 7.6 days. Currently, 13.6% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on CAMT shares. Barclays decreased their target price on Camtek from $140.00 to $120.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Cantor Fitzgerald assumed coverage on Camtek in a report on Monday, January 13th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $100.00 price target for the company. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and set a $105.00 price objective on shares of Camtek in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. StockNews.com raised Camtek from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $95.00 price target on shares of Camtek in a research 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $112.44.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Camtek

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC boosted its stake in Camtek by 14.5% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 4,851 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $605,000 after purchasing an additional 613 shares during the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC grew its holdings in Camtek by 30.1% during the second quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 5,050 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $635,000 after buying an additional 1,169 shares in the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. lifted its stake in Camtek by 16.6% during the 2nd quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 110,156 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $13,796,000 after acquiring an additional 15,683 shares in the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its stake in shares of Camtek by 11.9% in the 2nd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 16,905 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $2,117,000 after acquiring an additional 1,797 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP lifted its position in shares of Camtek by 70.4% during the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 38,907 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $4,873,000 after purchasing an additional 16,078 shares in the last quarter. 41.93% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Camtek Price Performance

Camtek stock traded up $4.68 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $103.62. The company had a trading volume of 921,899 shares, compared to its average volume of 435,921. The company has a market cap of $4.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 47.75, a P/E/G ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 1.33. Camtek has a fifty-two week low of $69.83 and a fifty-two week high of $140.50. The company has a current ratio of 5.28, a quick ratio of 4.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $80.58 and a 200 day simple moving average of $87.53.

Camtek (NASDAQ:CAMT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 12th. The semiconductor company reported $0.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $112.30 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $108.51 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.46 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 39.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict that Camtek will post 2.53 earnings per share for the current year.

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.