Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) Shares Bought by Inspire Advisors LLC

Inspire Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) by 23.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 71,783 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after purchasing an additional 13,764 shares during the quarter. Inspire Advisors LLC owned 0.13% of Veeco Instruments worth $2,378,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position 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 purchasing an additional 391,346 shares during the period. Driehaus Capital Management LLC increased 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 purchasing an additional 793,429 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position 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 purchasing an additional 31,482 shares during the period. Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC increased its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 4.5% during the 1st quarter. Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC now owns 384,310 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $13,516,000 after purchasing an additional 16,557 shares during the period. Finally, First Eagle Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 11.2% during the 2nd quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 325,698 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $15,213,000 after purchasing an additional 32,850 shares during the period. 98.46% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of Veeco Instruments stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.63, for a total value of $81,575.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 82,642 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,696,608.46. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 2.40% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on VECO. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on Veeco Instruments from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, June 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on Veeco Instruments from $39.00 to $35.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $55.00 target price on shares of Veeco Instruments in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Northland Securities decreased their target price on Veeco Instruments from $53.00 to $47.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Citigroup cut Veeco Instruments from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $45.00 to $50.00 in a report on Monday, July 15th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $45.57.

Veeco Instruments Stock Up 0.3 %

VECO traded up $0.10 during trading on Friday, reaching $30.67. 103,113 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 659,682. The stock has a market cap of $1.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -67.93 and a beta of 1.16. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $23.63 and a fifty-two week high of $49.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 3.52 and a quick ratio of 2.32. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $33.45 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $38.07.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by ($0.01). Veeco Instruments had a net margin of 11.83% and a return on equity of 12.03%. The firm had revenue of $175.88 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $176.03 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.21 EPS. Veeco Instruments’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 1.2 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.