Royce & Associates LP Grows Holdings in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO)

Royce & Associates LP grew its stake in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) by 4.0% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 373,643 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after buying an additional 14,370 shares during the quarter. Royce & Associates LP’s holdings in Veeco Instruments were worth $12,379,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Tidal Investments LLC raised its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 280.7% in the 1st quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 38,949 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,370,000 after purchasing an additional 28,719 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments by 5.6% during the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 598,014 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $27,933,000 after acquiring an additional 31,482 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments by 5.8% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,131,073 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $250,800,000 after acquiring an additional 391,346 shares during the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. lifted its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 130.7% in the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 48,075 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,691,000 after purchasing an additional 27,234 shares during the period. Finally, Great Lakes Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Veeco Instruments in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $4,219,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.46% of the company’s stock.

Veeco Instruments Stock Down 3.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ:VECO opened at $26.43 on Friday. 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 business has a fifty day moving average of $30.61 and a two-hundred day moving average of $37.19. The stock has a market cap of $1.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.58 and a beta of 1.17. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a 52-week low of $26.23 and a 52-week high of $49.25.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective 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 dropped their price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $55.00 target price on shares of Veeco Instruments in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. StockNews.com upgraded Veeco Instruments from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Oppenheimer decreased their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $45.00 to $40.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Veeco Instruments presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $42.14.

Insider Activity at Veeco Instruments

In other Veeco Instruments news, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.67, for a total value of $71,675.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 80,142 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,297,671.14. This trade represents a 3.03 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders sold 7,500 shares of company stock worth $225,850 in the last three months. 2.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Veeco Instruments Company 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.