Public Sector Pension Investment Board Has $3.99 Million Stake in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO)

Public Sector Pension Investment Board lowered its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) by 3.3% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 120,528 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 4,100 shares during the quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board’s holdings in Veeco Instruments were worth $3,993,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Signaturefd LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments by 130.6% during the 3rd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,328 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $44,000 after acquiring an additional 752 shares during the period. KBC Group NV lifted its stake in Veeco Instruments by 46.8% during the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,088 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $69,000 after purchasing an additional 666 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 237.4% during the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,677 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $78,000 after purchasing an additional 1,180 shares in the last quarter. nVerses Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 733.3% in the 2nd quarter. nVerses Capital LLC now owns 2,500 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $117,000 after purchasing an additional 2,200 shares during the period. Finally, US Bancorp DE raised its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments by 14.8% in the 3rd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 3,864 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $128,000 after buying an additional 498 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.46% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently commented on the company. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $55.00 price target on shares of Veeco Instruments in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Northland Securities lowered their target price on shares of Veeco Instruments from $53.00 to $47.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Benchmark cut their price target on shares of Veeco Instruments from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased 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 note on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Oppenheimer cut their target price on shares of Veeco Instruments from $45.00 to $40.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $42.14.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.63, for a total value of $81,575.00. Following the sale, 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders sold a total of 7,500 shares of company stock valued at $225,850 over the last three months. Company insiders own 2.40% of the company’s stock.

Veeco Instruments Stock Up 4.3 %

NASDAQ VECO opened at $29.07 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. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a 52 week low of $25.52 and a 52 week high of $49.25. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.53 and a beta of 1.17. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $29.91 and a 200-day moving average of $36.44.

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

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.