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

Camtek Ltd. (NASDAQ:CAMT) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in 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 stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 438,800 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 5.4 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Camtek

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CAMT. BluePath Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Camtek during the 3rd quarter valued at about $31,000. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC boosted its position in shares of Camtek by 574.2% during the 4th quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 445 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 379 shares in the last quarter. USA Financial Formulas boosted its position in shares of Camtek by 1,436.2% during the 4th quarter. USA Financial Formulas now owns 722 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $50,000 after purchasing an additional 675 shares in the last quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Camtek during the 1st quarter valued at about $62,000. Finally, FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of Camtek by 116.1% during the 2nd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,032 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $76,000 after purchasing an additional 1,629 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 41.93% of the company’s stock.

Camtek Price Performance

Shares of Camtek stock traded up $5.05 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $83.51. 389,625 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 429,718. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a quick ratio of 4.77 and a current ratio of 5.66. Camtek has a 1-year low of $24.89 and a 1-year high of $90.54. The company has a market cap of $3.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 51.55, a PEG ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 1.41. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $81.05 and its 200 day moving average price is $70.70.

Camtek (NASDAQ:CAMT) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The semiconductor company reported $0.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $88.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $88.02 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.45 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Camtek will post 2.12 earnings per share for the current year.

Camtek Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a Variable dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 4th will be given a $1.33 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 3rd. Camtek’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 82.10%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

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.