6,347 Shares in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) Acquired by MQS Management LLC

MQS Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 6,347 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $210,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Baillie Gifford & Co. lifted its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 32.2% during the 3rd quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 631,011 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $20,905,000 after buying an additional 153,754 shares during the period. GSA Capital Partners LLP bought a new position in shares of Veeco Instruments during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $295,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 311,886 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $10,333,000 after buying an additional 2,583 shares during the period. Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 41.7% during the 3rd quarter. Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC now owns 32,076 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,063,000 after buying an additional 9,442 shares during the period. Finally, New York State Common Retirement Fund raised its position in Veeco Instruments by 249.0% in the 3rd quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 430,757 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $14,271,000 after purchasing an additional 307,348 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.46% of the company’s stock.

Veeco Instruments Trading Down 3.2 %

VECO stock opened at $26.43 on Friday. The company 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 twelve month low of $26.23 and a twelve month 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 business has a fifty day moving average of $30.61 and a 200-day moving average of $37.18.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $184.80 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $180.57 million. Veeco Instruments had a return on equity of 10.92% and a net margin of 11.34%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.41 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 1.2 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of Veeco Instruments stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.63, for a total transaction of $81,575.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 82,642 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,696,608.46. The trade was a 2.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, 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.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have issued reports on VECO shares. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $55.00 price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Benchmark cut their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. StockNews.com upgraded Veeco Instruments from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Northland Securities cut their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $53.00 to $47.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $35.00 to $30.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $42.14.

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.