Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) Shares Bought by Verition Fund Management LLC

Verition Fund Management LLC raised its stake in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) by 31.6% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 18,334 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,400 shares during the quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC’s holdings in Veeco Instruments were worth $607,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in VECO. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 39.4% during the second quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 8,602 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $402,000 after purchasing an additional 2,433 shares in the last quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Veeco Instruments during the second quarter worth about $210,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in shares of 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 worth $27,933,000 after purchasing an additional 31,482 shares in the last quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System lifted its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 2.2% during the second quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 28,500 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,331,000 after purchasing an additional 600 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Calamos Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Veeco Instruments during the second quarter worth about $1,145,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.46% of the company’s stock.

Veeco Instruments Stock Performance

Shares of Veeco Instruments stock opened at $27.93 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.69 and a beta of 1.15. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a 52 week low of $25.52 and a 52 week high of $49.25. The company has a quick ratio of 2.41, a current ratio of 3.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $29.33 and its two-hundred day moving average is $35.84.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.46 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $184.80 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $180.57 million. Veeco Instruments had a net margin of 11.34% and a return on equity of 10.92%. The firm’s revenue was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.41 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 1.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on VECO. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on shares of Veeco Instruments from $35.00 to $30.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Benchmark reduced their target price on shares of Veeco Instruments from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, November 7th. StockNews.com raised shares of Veeco Instruments from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Oppenheimer reduced their target price on shares of Veeco Instruments from $45.00 to $40.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $42.14.

Insider Buying and Selling at Veeco Instruments

In other news, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 10th. The shares were 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 approximately $2,696,608.46. This trade represents a 2.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 2.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Veeco Instruments Profile

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.