Quest Partners LLC Acquires 2,853 Shares of Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO)

Quest Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) by 47.0% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 8,922 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,853 shares during the period. Quest Partners LLC’s holdings in Veeco Instruments were worth $296,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Tidal Investments LLC boosted its stake in Veeco Instruments by 280.7% during the first quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 38,949 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,370,000 after buying an additional 28,719 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in Veeco Instruments by 5.6% during the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 598,014 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $27,933,000 after buying an additional 31,482 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Veeco Instruments by 5.8% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,131,073 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $250,800,000 after buying an additional 391,346 shares during the last quarter. Great Lakes Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Veeco Instruments during the second quarter valued at approximately $4,219,000. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its position in Veeco Instruments by 122.9% during the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 63,325 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $2,226,000 after purchasing an additional 34,921 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 98.46% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on VECO. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $55.00 price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Oppenheimer decreased their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $45.00 to $40.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. StockNews.com upgraded Veeco Instruments from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $35.00 to $30.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Northland Securities decreased their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $53.00 to $47.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Veeco Instruments presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $42.14.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Veeco Instruments news, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.63, for a total transaction of $81,575.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 82,642 shares in the company, valued at $2,696,608.46. This trade represents a 2.94 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders have sold 7,500 shares of company stock worth $225,850 in the last ninety days. 2.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Veeco Instruments Trading Up 2.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ VECO opened at $27.97 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 2.41 and a current ratio of 3.54. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $30.20 and its 200-day moving average price is $36.75. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $25.52 and a fifty-two week high of $49.25. The company has a market cap of $1.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.72 and a beta of 1.17.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.46 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $184.80 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $180.57 million. Veeco Instruments had a return on equity of 10.92% and a net margin of 11.34%. Veeco Instruments’s quarterly revenue was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.41 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 1.12 earnings per share for the current year.

About Veeco Instruments

Veeco Instruments Inc, together with its subsidiaries, develops, manufactures, sells, and supports semiconductor and thin film process equipment primarily to make electronic devices in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, China, Rest of the Asia-Pacific, and internationally. The company offers laser annealing, ion beam deposition and etch, metal organic chemical vapor deposition, single wafer wet processing and surface preparation, molecular beam epitaxy, advanced packaging lithography, atomic layer deposition, and other deposition systems.