Raymond James & Associates Purchases 52,328 Shares of Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO)

Raymond James & Associates grew its position in shares of Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) by 42.6% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 175,073 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after acquiring an additional 52,328 shares during the quarter. Raymond James & Associates owned 0.31% of Veeco Instruments worth $5,800,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments by 5.8% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,131,073 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $250,800,000 after buying an additional 391,346 shares during the last quarter. Driehaus Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Veeco Instruments by 119.3% in the second quarter. Driehaus Capital Management LLC now owns 1,458,288 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $68,117,000 after acquiring an additional 793,429 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 5.6% in 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 acquiring an additional 31,482 shares during the period. Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC grew its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 4.5% in 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 acquiring an additional 16,557 shares during the period. Finally, First Eagle Investment Management LLC increased its stake 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 worth $15,213,000 after purchasing an additional 32,850 shares during the last quarter. 98.46% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on VECO shares. Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and set a $42.00 target price on shares of Veeco Instruments in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. StockNews.com upgraded Veeco Instruments from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday. Northland Securities dropped their price target on Veeco Instruments from $53.00 to $47.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on Veeco Instruments from $39.00 to $35.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, Citigroup cut Veeco Instruments from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $45.00 to $50.00 in a research report on Monday, July 15th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $45.57.

Veeco Instruments Stock Performance

NASDAQ:VECO opened at $28.78 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $31.90 and its 200 day moving average is $37.64. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a 52-week low of $23.63 and a 52-week high of $49.25. The firm has a market cap of $1.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -63.96 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 2.32 and a current ratio of 3.52.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Veeco Instruments

In other news, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of the business’s 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 $2,696,608.46. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 2.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.