At a glance
Novanta Inc is worth $5.70B, about 103 times its fiscal 2025 earnings. Revenue grew 3.3% to $980.6M in fiscal 2025, with 5.5% kept as profit; over 5 years it has grown 10.7% a year. It pays no dividend; it spent $49.3M buying back its shares over FY2021–FY2025. The stock returned +18.0% over the past year with dividends reinvested and −2.6% a year over five years, against +11.5% and +11.7% for the S&P 500. At its worst it fell 29.5% in the 2020 crash (S&P 500: 33.7%) and 36.2% in the 2022 bear market (S&P 500: 24.5%), and was back at its earlier high 2 months and 12 months after the lows.
The business in plain English
Novanta makes precision parts and subsystems that other companies build into their own equipment. Its customers are original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), such as makers of surgical robots, eye-surgery lasers, DNA sequencers, factory robots and chip-making tools. Most sales go directly through a technical sales force, and the rest go through resellers and distributors. The company was founded in 1968 as General Scanning. It took the Novanta name in 2016 after moving its focus from semiconductors to medical and industrial markets.
Revenue was $980.6 million in 2025, from two segments. Automation Enabling Technologies ($500.8 million, about 51%) supplies laser scanners, lasers, motion sensors, precision motors, robotic tool changers and air bearing spindles. Medical Solutions ($479.8 million, about 49%) offers insufflators (devices that inflate the abdomen with gas during keyhole surgery), endoscopic pumps and their disposables. It also offers imaging products, RFID (radio-frequency identification) readers for tracking surgical parts, light engines for DNA sequencing and operating-room video systems. Automation is more profitable: $114.5 million of operating profit against $51.2 million.
Medical customers made up about 53% of 2025 revenue, and management aims to raise that share. By region, the US accounted for about 53% of revenue, Germany 12%, the rest of Europe 14%, China 9.5% and the rest of Asia Pacific 10%. Novanta also grows through acquisitions, including Keonn, a Barcelona RFID specialist acquired in April 2025.
Price history
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NOVT +18.0% over the year to Oct 28, 2026, total return with dividends reinvested.
How it makes money
By business segment
| Automation Enabling Technologies | $500.8M | 51.1% |
| Medical Solutions | $479.8M | 48.9% |
By geography
| US | $519.0M | 52.9% |
| Rest Of Europe | $137.4M | 14% |
| DE | $114.6M | 11.7% |
| Rest Of Asia Pacific | $97.0M | 9.9% |
| CN | $93.2M | 9.5% |
| Other Countries | $19.3M | 2% |
Latest results
- In Q2 FY2026 (ended Jul 3, 2026), revenue was $265.8M, up 10.3% from a year earlier, and net income was $12.5M (+178.9%).
- For fiscal 2025, revenue was $980.6M (+3.3% year over year; +10.7% a year from FY2020 to FY2025) with a 5.5% net margin.
Financial health check
| Revenue growth a year (FY2020–FY2025) | +10.7% good |
|---|---|
| Operating margin | 9.6% watch |
| Free cash flow margin | 4.9% watch |
| Return on equity (FY2025) | 4.1% weak |
| Return on assets (FY2025) | 3% watch |
| Net cash (cash minus debt) | $489.0M good |
| Fiscal year | Revenue | Net income | Free cash flow |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2020 | $590.6M | $44.5M | $129.7M |
| FY2021 | $706.8M | $50.3M | $74.6M |
| FY2022 | $860.9M | $74.1M | $71.1M |
| FY2023 | $881.7M | $72.9M | $100.1M |
| FY2024 | $949.2M | $64.1M | $141.3M |
| FY2025 | $980.6M | $53.8M | $48.4M |
Valuation snapshot
| Market value | $5.70B |
|---|---|
| P/E ratio | 102.5 |
| Dividend yield | None |
Rank among 1514 US companies
Market value at each year end
Novanta’s market value went from $723.3M at the end of 2016 to $5.70B on Oct 28, 2026, about 7.9 times as much; since the end of 2025 it is up 34%.
Show as a table
| Year end | Market value | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 28, 2026 | $5.70B | +33.8% |
| 2025 | $4.26B | -22.4% |
| 2024 | $5.49B | -9.0% |
| 2023 | $6.03B | +24.4% |
| 2022 | $4.85B | -22.7% |
| 2021 | $6.28B | +51.0% |
| 2020 | $4.16B | +34.0% |
| 2019 | $3.10B | +41.1% |
| 2018 | $2.20B | +27.1% |
| 2017 | $1.73B | +139.1% |
| 2016 | $723.3M |
Price behavior
| YTD | 1 yr | 3 yr | 5 yr | 10 yr | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NOVT price data to Oct 28, 2026 | +26.6% | +18.0% | +5.1% | -2.6% | +23.9% |
Show as a table
| Year | Price data |
|---|---|
| 2026 (to date) | +26.6% |
| 2025 | -22.1% |
| 2024 | -9.3% |
| 2023 | +23.9% |
| 2022 | -22.9% |
| 2021 | +49.1% |
| 2020 | +33.7% |
| 2019 | +40.4% |
| 2018 | +26.0% |
| 2017 | +138.1% |
| 2016 | +58.9% |
| 2008 financial crisis stocks fell Oct 9, 2007 – Mar 9, 2009 | Before this security existed |
|---|---|
| 2020 COVID crash stocks fell Feb 19, 2020 – Mar 23, 2020 | Lost 24% over that stretch · deepest drop along the way 29.5%, back to its old high 2 months after the low |
| 2022 bear market stocks fell Jan 3, 2022 – Oct 12, 2022 | Lost 33.8% over that stretch · deepest drop along the way 36.2%, back to its old high 12.2 months after the low |
Insider activity
Form 4 filings from 2025-10-29 to 2026-10-29 (25 read): 0 open-market purchases and 35 sales ($8.4M), 35 of them under pre-arranged 10b5-1 trading plans.
| Date | Insider | Type | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 10, 2026 | Matthijs Glastra Chief Executive Officer, Director | sell (plan) | $1.1M |
| Apr 17, 2026 | Matthijs Glastra Chief Executive Officer, Director | sell (plan) | $845K |
| May 12, 2026 | Matthijs Glastra Chief Executive Officer, Director | sell (plan) | $762K |
| May 5, 2026 | Matthijs Glastra Chief Executive Officer, Director | sell (plan) | $558K |
| Mar 16, 2026 | Robert Buckley Chief Financial Officer | sell (plan) | $551K |
Who owns it
Large shareholders (13G filings)
| BlackRock, Inc. | 13.5% | Jun 30, 2026 |
| Vanguard Portfolio Management | 7.01% | Mar 31, 2026 |
| T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. | 6.2% | Jun 30, 2026 |
| Vanguard Capital Management | 5.27% | Mar 31, 2026 |
ETFs with the most weight in NOVT
| ROBO ROBO Global Robotics & Automation Index ETF | 1.69% |
| PEXL Pacer US Export Leaders ETF | 0.91% |
| IBOT Vaneck Robotics ETF | 0.8% |
| IWO iShares Russell 2000 Growth ETF | 0.35% |
| JHSC John Hancock Multifactor Small Cap ETF | 0.33% |
| NUSC Nuveen ESG Small-Cap ETF | 0.31% |
| ETHO Amplify Etho Climate Leadership U.S. ETF | 0.29% |
| BKSE BNY Mellon US Small Cap Core Equity ETF | 0.26% |
What could go wrong
- Exposure to boom-and-bust industrial cycles. Parts of its industrial business, such as microelectronics and industrial capital equipment, go through sharp cycles. When customers stop investing in new machines, orders for Novanta's components can drop quickly and with little warning.
- Supply shortfalls have pushed customers elsewhere. Novanta says it has failed to raise output fast enough, and that led customers to seek other suppliers. It also depends on some parts that come from only one supplier, and supply disruptions have hurt results before.
- Heavy reliance on equipment makers. Most sales go to OEMs. Losing a major customer or a big cut in orders could hurt results. A struggling customer could also leave Novanta with unpaid bills or unsold inventory.
- Growth depends on acquisitions working out. Novanta has made a string of deals, including Motion Solutions in 2024 and Keonn in 2025. Poor integration could slow growth and force write-downs of the value booked for acquired businesses, which would cut reported earnings.
- Medical rules and research funding cuts. Medical products need regulatory approvals and can be recalled. Demand can also fall when hospitals limit spending, healthcare costs are controlled or research funding is cut, including National Institutes of Health grants.
- Tariffs, China and currency swings. Close to half of revenue comes from outside the US, including 9.5% from China. Tariffs, trade restrictions and exchange-rate moves can raise costs, squeeze margins or reduce sales.
Recent events
- Quarterly results released
- Acquisition or sale of assets completed; New debt or financial obligation; Investor presentation or announcement
- Major agreement signed; Unregistered sale of shares; Other company announcement
- Major agreement signed; Investor presentation or announcement
- Shareholder vote results
- Major agreement signed; New debt or financial obligation
- Quarterly results released
- Quarterly results released
- Investor presentation or announcement
- Investor presentation or announcement
For income and retirement investors
Novanta does not pay a dividend and paid none in fiscal 2021 through 2025, so the shares provide no regular income. Any return has to come from price gains, and turning gains into spending money means cashing in shares. The company has repurchased some stock: $49.3 million over fiscal 2021–2025, including $39.3 million in 2025. Even so, the share count rose about 6.2%, from 35.6 million in October 2021 to 37.8 million as of July 29, 2026.
Past downturns hit the shares hard. In the 2020 COVID crash they dropped 29.5% but recovered by May 20, 2020, about two months after the low. In the 2022 bear market they fell 36.2% and needed about a year to recover, by June 22, 2023. Over the year to October 28, 2026, the stock's beta was 1.97, meaning it tended to move about twice as much as the overall market. A single stock like Novanta carries more risk than a diversified fund.
Questions investors ask
How does Novanta make money?
Novanta makes money by supplying precision components and subsystems to original equipment manufacturers, which build them into medical and industrial machines. Revenue was $980.6 million in 2025. Automation Enabling Technologies, about 51% of revenue, provides lasers, laser scanners, motion sensors, motors and robotic tooling. Medical Solutions, about 49%, provides surgical insufflators and pumps with their disposables, imaging and RFID products, light engines for DNA sequencing and operating-room video systems. About 53% of 2025 revenue came from medical customers.
Does Novanta pay a dividend?
No. Novanta paid no dividends in fiscal 2021 through 2025, so its common shares produce no regular income. It has returned some cash through share repurchases: $49.3 million over those five years, including $39.3 million in 2025. In November 2025 it also issued 6.50% tangible equity units, listed as NOVTU. Each unit combines a note with a prepaid stock purchase contract, and the units are a separate security from the common stock.
Is Novanta stock expensive?
By the usual earnings yardstick, the shares are priced high. As of October 28, 2026, the price-to-earnings ratio (share price divided by a year's profit per share) was 102.5, based on 2025 earnings of $1.47 per share. Part of the reason is that profit shrank: net income fell 16% in 2025 to $53.8 million while revenue rose 3.3%. In the quarter ended July 3, 2026, revenue was up 10.3% from a year earlier. The market value was about $5.7 billion.
How has Novanta stock performed over the long run?
Strongly over 10 years, poorly over five. As of October 28, 2026, the shares returned about 23.9% a year over 10 years, a cumulative gain of 754%. Over five years they lost about 2.6% a year, or 13% in total. The stock lost about 23% in 2022, 9% in 2024 and 22% in 2025, then gained 26.6% in 2026 through October 28. Its deepest fall over the three years to that date was 46.7%.
Does Novanta have a lot of debt?
Not on a net basis, as of July 3, 2026. On that date Novanta held $718.7 million in cash and investments against $229.7 million of total debt, which left about $489 million of net cash. Its 2025 annual report described a credit facility of about $1.0 billion maturing in June 2030. That included an $850 million revolving line it can draw on as needed. A July 27, 2026 filing reported a completed acquisition and a new debt obligation, so these figures may have changed since.