Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) Shares Sold by Dana Investment Advisors Inc.

Dana Investment Advisors Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) by 23.1% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 46,481 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 13,988 shares during the period. Dana Investment Advisors Inc. owned about 0.08% of Veeco Instruments worth $2,171,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Driehaus Capital Management LLC grew 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 worth $68,117,000 after purchasing an additional 793,429 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position 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 worth $250,800,000 after acquiring an additional 391,346 shares in the last quarter. Blue Grotto Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Veeco Instruments in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $11,476,000. Mesirow Institutional Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Veeco Instruments during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $8,857,000. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its stake in Veeco Instruments by 8.6% during the fourth quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 1,705,572 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $52,924,000 after purchasing an additional 135,687 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.46% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Veeco Instruments

In other Veeco Instruments news, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.04, for a total value of $72,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 85,142 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,472,523.68. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 2.40% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have weighed in on VECO. 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 lowered shares of Veeco Instruments from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Citigroup downgraded Veeco Instruments from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted 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 price target on Veeco Instruments from $39.00 to $35.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $55.00 price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $45.57.

Veeco Instruments Stock Up 0.9 %

VECO opened at $32.47 on Thursday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $34.56 and its 200 day moving average price is $38.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 3.52 and a quick ratio of 2.32. The stock has a market cap of $1.84 billion, a P/E ratio of -72.16 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.

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

About Veeco Instruments

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.