CluenexNovanta NOVT
Novanta scores average on business quality (5.3 of 10). Here is why, in plain words, and what our sealed record shows.
Why it matters
- What Novanta does
Novanta designs and manufactures precision photonics, vision, and motion control technologies, selling components to medical and advanced industrial equipment manufacturers. The company makes its money by embedding proprietary subsystems into mission-critical devices where failure is not an option. Growth relies on expanding its installed base across healthcare and industrial automation markets despite modest recent revenue gains of 3.4%.
- What it does best
Novanta excels at embedding proprietary components into medical lasers and surgical equipment, commanding a gross margin of 44.6% that outperforms peers like TDY at 43.4%. This edge stems from deep customer integration, making substitution costly and complex.
- The main risk
The primary threat is slowing top-line expansion, with revenue growth sitting in the bottom quartile of its sector at 19th percentile rank. If demand stalls in its core medical and industrial markets, low organic growth will expose high valuation multiples.
Quality, check by check
Scored against its own industry, from company filings.
Operating margin stands at 11.6% with an FCF margin of 11.1%. Profitability is stable but constrained by modest gross margins, meaning scaling does not yield outsized margin expansion.
Switching costs protect its niche among medical device original equipment manufacturers. Its gross margin sits in the bottom quartile of its sector at 26th percentile, limiting the wideness of its economic moat.
Revenue growth crawls at 3.4%, sitting in the bottom quartile of its sector. History shows steady annual revenue gains from $882 million to $1.0B, but the engine is fading.
Debt is negligible with interest coverage at 685x, making debt costs a rounding error. Free cash flow reached $114 million. The balance sheet is getting stronger.
Insiders
Executives and directors, from SEC Form 4 filings we read ourselves. Open market trades only; grants, option exercises and pre-planned sales left out.
No open market buys or unplanned sales by executives or directors.
Our sealed record on NOVT
Verdicts appear here 30 days after we publish them; members see today's. Each one is in the nightly ledger, fingerprinted the night it was made.
The first sealed verdicts appear here on Oct 11, 2026.
Questions
Novanta scores average on the Cluenex quality check (5.3 of 10), measured against its own industry. Profitability is weak, moat fair, growth slow and financial health strong.
In the last 90 days of SEC Form 4 filings: No open market buys or unplanned sales by executives or directors.
Nov 2, 2026.
See NOVT today
- Today's verdict on NOVT, and why
- Fair value with cautious, base and optimistic cases
- The exact price that would change the verdict
- Which stocks each signal names, the night it fires
Cite this page: Cluenex, “Novanta (NOVT)”, https://cluenex.com/stocks/novt/, data as of Oct 10, 2026.