Mark Sheptoff Financial Planning LLC Has $974,000 Holdings in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO)

Mark Sheptoff Financial Planning LLC decreased its stake in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) by 2.3% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 20,850 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 500 shares during the period. Mark Sheptoff Financial Planning LLC’s holdings in Veeco Instruments were worth $974,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of VECO. EFG Asset Management North America Corp. raised its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. EFG Asset Management North America Corp. now owns 67,588 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $3,156,000 after acquiring an additional 319 shares in the last quarter. Pitcairn Co. lifted its position in Veeco Instruments by 3.1% in the first quarter. Pitcairn Co. now owns 18,675 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $657,000 after purchasing an additional 559 shares during the period. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System boosted its stake 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 worth $1,331,000 after buying an additional 600 shares in the last quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp increased its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 1.3% in the 1st quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 49,310 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,734,000 after buying an additional 639 shares during the period. Finally, Natixis Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 5.8% in the 2nd quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 16,720 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $781,000 after buying an additional 915 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.46% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Veeco Instruments

In related news, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.04, for a total value of $72,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 85,142 shares in the company, valued at $2,472,523.68. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 2.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $42.00 price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Northland Securities dropped their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $53.00 to $47.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Citigroup downgraded shares of Veeco Instruments from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $45.00 to $50.00 in a research note on Monday, July 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on shares of Veeco Instruments from $39.00 to $35.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their price target on shares of Veeco Instruments from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 27th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $45.57.

Veeco Instruments Stock Down 1.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ:VECO opened at $30.50 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.32, a current ratio of 3.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. The firm has a market cap of $1.73 billion, a P/E ratio of -67.78 and a beta of 1.17. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a 12 month low of $23.63 and a 12 month high of $49.25. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $37.17 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $38.54.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.42 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.43 by ($0.01). Veeco Instruments had a net margin of 11.83% and a return on equity of 12.03%. The company had revenue of $175.88 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $176.03 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.21 earnings per share. Veeco Instruments’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 1.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Veeco Instruments Company 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.