Wasatch Advisors LP Has $87.49 Million Stock Position in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO)

Wasatch Advisors LP increased its holdings in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) by 50.3% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 2,640,649 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after acquiring an additional 883,815 shares during the period. Wasatch Advisors LP owned about 4.65% of Veeco Instruments worth $87,485,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in VECO. Tidal Investments LLC increased its stake in Veeco Instruments by 280.7% in the 1st 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. lifted its stake in Veeco Instruments by 5.6% in the 2nd 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. Great Lakes Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Veeco Instruments during the 2nd quarter valued at $4,219,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 122.9% during the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 63,325 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $2,226,000 after buying an additional 34,921 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Driehaus Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 119.3% during the 2nd quarter. Driehaus Capital Management LLC now owns 1,458,288 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $68,117,000 after buying an additional 793,429 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.46% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Veeco Instruments

In other news, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of Veeco Instruments stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 directly owns 80,142 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,297,671.14. The trade was a 3.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders have sold a total of 7,500 shares of company stock valued at $225,850 in the last ninety days. 2.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on VECO shares. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $55.00 target price on shares of Veeco Instruments in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Benchmark dropped their price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Northland Securities dropped their price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments from $53.00 to $47.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Oppenheimer decreased their target price on shares of Veeco Instruments from $45.00 to $40.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments from $35.00 to $30.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Veeco Instruments currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $42.14.

Veeco Instruments Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of Veeco Instruments stock opened at $27.87 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $29.98 and its 200-day moving average price is $36.55. The company has a quick ratio of 2.41, a current ratio of 3.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a 52-week low of $25.52 and a 52-week high of $49.25. The company has a market cap of $1.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.13 and a beta of 1.17.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.46 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 the consensus estimate of $180.57 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.41 EPS. Veeco Instruments’s revenue was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 1.12 EPS for the current fiscal 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.