Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Takes $875,000 Position in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new stake in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 28,200 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $875,000. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System owned 0.05% of Veeco Instruments as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. NBC Securities Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Veeco Instruments in the 3rd quarter valued at $26,000. Federated Hermes Inc. acquired a new stake in Veeco Instruments during the 3rd quarter worth $33,000. Covestor Ltd raised its stake in Veeco Instruments by 1,311.0% during the 3rd quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,284 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 1,193 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its stake in Veeco Instruments by 28.3% during the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 3,543 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $100,000 after buying an additional 782 shares during the period. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale acquired a new stake in Veeco Instruments during the 3rd quarter worth $211,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.46% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Veeco Instruments

In related news, CEO William John Miller sold 24,201 shares of Veeco Instruments stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.30, for a total value of $854,295.30. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 545,091 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,241,712.30. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, SVP Adrian Devasahayam sold 5,000 shares of Veeco Instruments stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.10, for a total transaction of $170,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 67,278 shares in the company, valued at $2,294,179.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO William John Miller sold 24,201 shares of Veeco Instruments stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.30, for a total value of $854,295.30. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 545,091 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,241,712.30. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 2.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Veeco Instruments Stock Performance

VECO opened at $34.40 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $35.09 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $31.29. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a 1 year low of $17.70 and a 1 year high of $37.75. The company has a market capitalization of $1.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -52.92 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 3.24 and a quick ratio of 2.15.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The semiconductor company reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $173.92 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $170.00 million. Veeco Instruments had a positive return on equity of 11.10% and a negative net margin of 4.56%. Equities analysts expect that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 1.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on VECO. Citigroup raised their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $36.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Barclays raised their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $28.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. Benchmark raised their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $34.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $31.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $36.57.

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.