Natixis Advisors LLC Buys 16,012 Shares of Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO)

Natixis Advisors LLC grew its stake in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) by 95.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 32,732 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after purchasing an additional 16,012 shares during the quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC owned about 0.06% of Veeco Instruments worth $1,084,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 5.8% during the first 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 period. Driehaus Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments by 119.3% during the 2nd quarter. Driehaus Capital Management LLC now owns 1,458,288 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $68,117,000 after acquiring an additional 793,429 shares during the period. Baillie Gifford & Co. raised its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 32.2% in the 3rd quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 631,011 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $20,905,000 after acquiring an additional 153,754 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake 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 purchasing an additional 31,482 shares during the period. Finally, New York State Common Retirement Fund lifted its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 249.0% in the 3rd quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 430,757 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $14,271,000 after purchasing an additional 307,348 shares during the period. 98.46% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Veeco Instruments

In other news, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of Veeco Instruments stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.67, for a total value of $71,675.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 80,142 shares in the company, valued at $2,297,671.14. The trade was a 3.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders sold 7,500 shares of company stock worth $225,850 over the last quarter. 2.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Veeco Instruments Stock Down 3.0 %

Shares of Veeco Instruments stock opened at $27.13 on Wednesday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $30.20 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $36.75. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.54 billion, a PE ratio of 20.10 and a beta of 1.17. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a 52-week low of $25.52 and a 52-week high of $49.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 2.41 and a current ratio of 3.54.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.46 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $184.80 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $180.57 million. Veeco Instruments had a net margin of 11.34% and a return on equity of 10.92%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.41 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 1.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have issued reports on VECO. Benchmark decreased their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Oppenheimer decreased their price target 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. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $55.00 price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. StockNews.com raised shares of Veeco Instruments from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Northland Securities dropped their price target on Veeco Instruments from $53.00 to $47.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $42.14.

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.