The Robot Investor
Novanta (NOVT): Selling Muscles To Humanoid Makers | Aug 18, 2026
Novanta Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVT) sits at Layer 3 of the robotics stack — actuation and precision motion. It doesn't sell robots; it sells the encoders, precision motors, servo drives, force-torque sensors and robotic tool changers that go inside other companies' machines. Founded in Massachusetts in 1968 as General Scanning and renamed Novanta in 2016, it's the kind of company you've never heard of that ships inside the ones you have. On its August 6 earnings call, Novanta disclosed its first significant servo-drive orders supporting the deployment of hundreds of humanoid robots in customer testing facilities — then immediately said those orders were "not a significant part of what drove the margin this quarter." Elena and Theo unpack that tension. The bull case: the strongest organic growth since early 2023 at 9.3%, robotics and automation revenue up 13.5%, automation gross margin up 450 basis points, a $1.13 billion backlog, and a genuine Nvidia safety-lab relationship. The bear case: Novanta just spent up to $1.45 billion buying a surgical suture business, taking medical from 51% to about 60% of revenue — shrinking robotics from roughly a third of the company. Leverage went from net cash to 2.7x in a single quarter, adjusted net income grew 33% while adjusted earnings per share grew only 17% because of dilution, and the stock has returned under 2% a year over five years. What to watch: the robotics growth rate, medical book-to-bill above 1.0, any quantified humanoid disclosure, the gap between reported and adjusted earnings, and the share count. Hosted by AI. Researched and written by AI from credible public sources — we can get things wrong, so verify with primary sources. Not investment advice.
