What Did It Take To Hold Novanta Stock?
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A $10,000 investment in Novanta (NOVT) stock ten years ago grew to about $85,654 at the close on October 29, 2026, before dividends. That same money would have grown to about $36,307 in the S&P 500. Picking the stock looks like the hard part in hindsight, but holding it proved more difficult. So how many times do you think the stock fell 20% or more along the way?
How Often Did Novanta Stock Fall?
Over those ten years, Novanta stock dropped 20% or more from a closing high six times. Four of those declines exceeded 30%.
| High | Low | Novanta stock | S&P 500, same dates | Back above the old high |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 2018 | Oct 2018 | -27.8% | -8.8% | Feb 2019 |
| Jun 2019 | Aug 2019 | -25.0% | -0.786% | Jan 2020 |
| Feb 2020 | Apr 2020 | -31.8% | -26.2% | May 2020 |
| Nov 2021 | Jun 2022 | -38.6% | -21.7% | Jun 2023 |
| Jul 2023 | Nov 2023 | -35.0% | -3.2% | Jul 2024 |
| Jul 2024 | Nov 2025 | -46.7% | 15.4% | Not as of Oct 2026 |
Falls of 20% or more from a closing high, Oct 2016 to Oct 2026. Split-adjusted closing prices, dividends excluded.
The deepest decline is also the most recent. From July 2024 to November 2025, the stock lost 46.7% while the S&P 500 rose 15.4%. Shareholders could not blame a falling market for that drop. Its worst day came on Nov. 6, 2025, when the stock fell 19% after Novanta announced a $550 million equity-unit offering.
How Did Holding Novanta Through A Fall Feel?
Consider owning the shares at their July 2024 peak. The ensuing slide lasted 16 months before hitting a low in November 2025, offering no indication of where the descent would end. Today, 27 months after reaching that high, Novanta stock still has not closed above it.
Was Something Wrong With Novanta’s Business?
Reported sales kept rising during the deepest decline, though management said organic sales fell 4% in the quarter before the low. By the November 2025 low, Novanta’s yearly revenue stood 6.7% higher than it was at the July 2024 high, while its operating margin slipped from 13.0% to 12.4%. Revenue also increased during the selloff from November 2021 to June 2022, climbing 14.2% between the high and the low.
A share price can drift apart from the business beneath it for a long stretch, in either direction. Tesla is still priced at about $1.3 trillion even after its deliveries fell two years in a row. Read Trefis Big Story: How Tesla Blundered.
What Selling Novanta Stock Would Have Cost
Novanta stock has climbed 52.4% since hitting that November 2025 low. Investors who sold at the bottom missed the entire rebound. Even following that rally, the shares still sit 18.8% below their July 2024 high.
Enduring those six pullbacks was the cost of capturing Novanta’s ten-year gain. Only investors who held their positions through every drop realized the full return. The next time Novanta stock falls hard, look at whether its revenue is falling alongside it. During its deepest fall, it was not.
How To Act On NOVT?
Not necessarily on Novanta alone, if your goal is long-term wealth. Wealth is built by owning the companies that keep outperforming, the leaders of their industries, wherever they are. Here are two companies from Novanta’s own industry that have beaten it. Over the five years to October 2026, Keysight Technologies stock rose 83% and Impinj stock rose 162%, while Novanta stock fell 12.4%.
Finding companies like these takes comparison across industries and sectors, and that is what the Trefis High Quality (HQ) Portfolio does. It holds 30 quality companies in equal weight and, since its inception in September 2020, has returned more than 105%, ahead of a benchmark that combines the S&P 500, S&P Mid-cap and Russell 2000. See how we find the leaders.
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