Investors Purchase Large Volume of Put Options on Camtek (NASDAQ:CAMT)

Camtek Ltd. (NASDAQ:CAMT) saw unusually large options trading activity on Thursday. Stock traders purchased 4,034 put options on the stock. This is an increase of 229% compared to the typical daily volume of 1,225 put options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have commented on the stock. B. Riley reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $102.00 target price on shares of Camtek in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Evercore ISI began coverage on Camtek in a research note on Tuesday. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $100.00 target price for the company. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on Camtek from $82.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Camtek currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $74.75.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Camtek

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CAMT. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd raised its holdings in Camtek by 6.0% in the fourth quarter. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd now owns 1,131,671 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $78,523,000 after acquiring an additional 64,484 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Camtek by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 937,408 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $58,363,000 after purchasing an additional 33,820 shares in the last quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Camtek by 8.9% during the third quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. now owns 834,265 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $51,941,000 after purchasing an additional 68,102 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. grew its stake in Camtek by 9.7% in the fourth quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 762,649 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $52,913,000 after purchasing an additional 67,649 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in Camtek by 7.8% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 610,164 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $18,585,000 after buying an additional 44,158 shares during the last quarter. 41.93% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Camtek Trading Up 1.9 %

Camtek stock traded up $1.50 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $81.86. The stock had a trading volume of 68,291 shares, compared to its average volume of 423,404. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $81.10 and its 200 day simple moving average is $70.77. Camtek has a twelve month low of $24.89 and a twelve month high of $90.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a quick ratio of 4.77 and a current ratio of 5.66. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.68 billion, a PE ratio of 49.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 1.41.

Camtek (NASDAQ:CAMT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 20th. The semiconductor company reported $0.57 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $88.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $88.02 million. Camtek had a return on equity of 18.92% and a net margin of 24.93%. The company’s revenue was up 7.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.45 EPS. Analysts expect that Camtek will post 2.12 EPS for the current year.

Camtek Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a Variable dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 4th will be issued a dividend of $1.33 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 3rd. Camtek’s dividend payout ratio is presently 82.10%.

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.