Assenagon Asset Management S.A. Sells 423,637 Shares of Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO)

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. decreased its holdings in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) by 70.8% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 174,377 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 423,637 shares during the quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. owned approximately 0.31% of Veeco Instruments worth $5,777,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Driehaus Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 793,429 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 5.8% in 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. Mesirow Institutional Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in Veeco Instruments during the second quarter valued at $8,857,000. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund boosted its position in Veeco Instruments by 132.1% during the first 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 acquiring an additional 111,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Great Lakes Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Veeco Instruments during the 2nd quarter worth about $4,219,000. 98.46% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Veeco Instruments news, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of the firm’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 directly owns 82,642 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,696,608.46. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 2.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently commented on VECO. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $55.00 target price on shares of Veeco Instruments in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Citigroup downgraded shares of Veeco Instruments from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $45.00 to $50.00 in a research report on Monday, July 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on shares of Veeco Instruments from $39.00 to $35.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Northland Securities reduced their price target on shares of Veeco Instruments from $53.00 to $47.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Benchmark reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $42.00 price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $45.57.

Veeco Instruments Stock Up 2.5 %

Veeco Instruments stock opened at $29.98 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -66.62 and a beta of 1.16. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $32.23 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $37.76. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a 1-year low of $23.63 and a 1-year high of $49.25. The company has a current ratio of 3.52, a quick ratio of 2.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.42 earnings per share (EPS) 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 analyst estimates 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.21 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 1.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.