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

Public Sector Pension Investment Board reduced its position in shares of Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) by 3.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 120,528 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 4,100 shares during the quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board owned 0.21% of Veeco Instruments worth $3,993,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of VECO. EFG Asset Management North America Corp. boosted its position in Veeco Instruments by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter. EFG Asset Management North America Corp. now owns 67,588 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $3,156,000 after acquiring an additional 319 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE boosted its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments by 14.8% during the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 3,864 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $128,000 after purchasing an additional 498 shares during the period. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System grew its position in Veeco Instruments by 2.2% during the second quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 28,500 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,331,000 after purchasing an additional 600 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV increased its stake in Veeco Instruments by 46.8% in the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,088 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $69,000 after buying an additional 666 shares during the period. Finally, Signaturefd LLC lifted its position in Veeco Instruments by 130.6% in the 3rd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,328 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $44,000 after buying an additional 752 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.46% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Veeco Instruments

In other news, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.63, for a total transaction of $81,575.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 82,642 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,696,608.46. This represents a 2.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders sold a total of 7,500 shares of company stock worth $225,850 in the last ninety days. 2.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Veeco Instruments Stock Performance

Shares of VECO opened at $29.07 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 3.54 and a quick ratio of 2.41. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a one year low of $25.52 and a one year high of $49.25. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $29.91 and its 200 day moving average price is $36.44. The company has a market capitalization of $1.65 billion, a PE ratio of 21.53 and a beta of 1.17.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.46 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.01. Veeco Instruments had a return on equity of 10.92% and a net margin of 11.34%. The firm had revenue of $184.80 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $180.57 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.41 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 1.12 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have weighed in on the company. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $55.00 target price on shares of Veeco Instruments in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. StockNews.com downgraded Veeco Instruments from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, November 28th. Oppenheimer reduced 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. Northland Securities dropped their price target 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. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments from $35.00 to $30.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Veeco Instruments presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price 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.