International Assets Investment Management LLC Raises Holdings in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO)

International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its position in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) by 3,213.1% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,804 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after buying an additional 4,659 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Veeco Instruments were worth $145,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Driehaus Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 119.3% in the 2nd quarter. Driehaus Capital Management LLC now owns 1,458,288 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $68,117,000 after buying an additional 793,429 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Veeco Instruments by 5.8% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,131,073 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $250,800,000 after acquiring an additional 391,346 shares during the last quarter. Mesirow Institutional Investment Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Veeco Instruments during the second quarter valued at approximately $8,857,000. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund lifted its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 132.1% in the 1st quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 195,000 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $6,858,000 after purchasing an additional 111,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Great Lakes Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Veeco Instruments in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $4,219,000. 98.46% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Veeco Instruments Stock Down 3.4 %

Shares of VECO opened at $29.08 on Friday. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a 52 week low of $26.23 and a 52 week high of $49.25. The company has a market capitalization of $1.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.62 and a beta of 1.17. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $31.21 and its 200-day moving average price is $37.45. The company has a quick ratio of 2.32, a current ratio of 3.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.42 earnings per share 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 business had revenue of $175.88 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $176.03 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.21 EPS. Veeco Instruments’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 1.2 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

VECO has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Citigroup downgraded shares of Veeco Instruments from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the company from $45.00 to $50.00 in a research note on Monday, July 15th. Northland Securities decreased their price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments from $53.00 to $47.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. StockNews.com raised Veeco Instruments from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Oppenheimer decreased their price target on Veeco Instruments from $45.00 to $40.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $35.00 to $30.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $42.14.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Veeco Instruments news, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of the business’s 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 82,642 shares of the company’s stock, 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 filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 2.20% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.