Short Interest in Onto Innovation Inc. (NYSE:ONTO) Drops By 20.5%

Onto Innovation Inc. (NYSE:ONTO) was the recipient of a significant drop in short interest in March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,200,000 shares, a drop of 20.5% from the February 28th total of 1,510,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 964,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.2 days. Approximately 2.5% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Onto Innovation news, SVP Srinivas Vedula sold 827 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $205.00, for a total transaction of $169,535.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 15,223 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,120,715. This trade represents a 5.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Michael P. Plisinski sold 20,000 shares of Onto Innovation stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $200.19, for a total transaction of $4,003,800.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 215,492 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $43,139,343.48. This represents a 8.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 85,827 shares of company stock worth $18,182,185. 0.72% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Onto Innovation

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC grew its holdings in shares of Onto Innovation by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 16,083 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $2,680,000 after buying an additional 225 shares during the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Onto Innovation by 287.0% during the 3rd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 4,663 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $968,000 after purchasing an additional 3,458 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Onto Innovation by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 834,345 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $173,401,000 after purchasing an additional 13,405 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in shares of Onto Innovation by 12.9% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,008,399 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $416,863,000 after purchasing an additional 228,800 shares during the period. Finally, HighTower Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Onto Innovation by 72.0% during the third quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 10,184 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $2,095,000 after buying an additional 4,263 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.35% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have commented on ONTO shares. Oppenheimer decreased their price target on Onto Innovation from $275.00 to $240.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $230.00 price target on shares of Onto Innovation in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $200.00 target price on Onto Innovation and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. StockNews.com raised Onto Innovation from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, Benchmark reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $230.00 target price on shares of Onto Innovation in a research note on Friday, February 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Onto Innovation presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $231.88.

Onto Innovation Trading Up 1.4 %

NYSE:ONTO traded up $1.69 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $123.03. 713,973 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 739,815. Onto Innovation has a fifty-two week low of $116.16 and a fifty-two week high of $238.93. The company has a market capitalization of $6.06 billion, a PE ratio of 30.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $160.73 and a 200 day simple moving average of $177.66.

Onto Innovation (NYSE:ONTO) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The semiconductor company reported $1.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.41 by $0.10. Onto Innovation had a return on equity of 14.24% and a net margin of 20.43%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Onto Innovation will post 6.26 EPS for the current year.

About Onto Innovation

Onto Innovation Inc engages in the design, development, manufacture, and support of process control tools that performs optical metrology. The company offers lithography systems and process control analytical software. It also offers process and yield management solutions, and device packaging and test facilities through standalone systems for optical metrology, macro-defect inspection, packaging lithography, and transparent and opaque thin film measurements.