Yousif Capital Management LLC Sells 534 Shares of Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO)

Yousif Capital Management LLC lowered its position in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) by 2.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 21,530 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 534 shares during the period. Yousif Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Veeco Instruments were worth $577,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. US Bancorp DE grew its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 14.8% in the 3rd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 3,864 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $128,000 after buying an additional 498 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV grew its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 46.8% in the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,088 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $69,000 after buying an additional 666 shares during the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC grew its stake in shares of 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 during the last quarter. Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 11.0% in the 3rd quarter. Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC now owns 9,099 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $301,000 after buying an additional 901 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Inspire Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 7.5% in the 4th quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 14,886 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $399,000 after buying an additional 1,040 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.46% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. Benchmark cut their price target on Veeco Instruments from $38.00 to $31.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. StockNews.com downgraded Veeco Instruments from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday. Needham & Company LLC cut their price target on Veeco Instruments from $35.00 to $29.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Barclays cut their price target on Veeco Instruments from $30.00 to $25.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Citigroup cut their target price on Veeco Instruments from $33.00 to $30.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $32.43.

Veeco Instruments Stock Performance

Shares of VECO opened at $24.67 on Monday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $26.60 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $29.83. The company has a current ratio of 3.54, a quick ratio of 2.41 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a 12 month low of $23.00 and a 12 month high of $49.25. The company has a market cap of $1.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.27 and a beta of 1.13.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The semiconductor company reported $0.26 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.40 by ($0.14). Veeco Instruments had a net margin of 11.34% and a return on equity of 10.92%. Research analysts anticipate that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 1.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.51, for a total transaction of $61,275.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 72,642 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,780,455.42. This represents a 3.33 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders own 2.40% of the company’s stock.

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.