Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. Makes New Investment in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO)

Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. acquired a new stake in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund acquired 9,858 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $327,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VECO. 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 valued at $250,800,000 after buying an additional 391,346 shares during the last quarter. Driehaus Capital Management LLC boosted its stake 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 purchasing an additional 793,429 shares during the last quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. increased its stake in Veeco Instruments by 32.2% in the third quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 631,011 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $20,905,000 after purchasing an additional 153,754 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 5.6% during 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 buying an additional 31,482 shares during the period. Finally, New York State Common Retirement Fund raised its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 249.0% in the third quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 430,757 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $14,271,000 after buying an additional 307,348 shares during the period. 98.46% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Veeco Instruments Price Performance

NASDAQ:VECO opened at $26.51 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $30.33 and a 200-day moving average of $36.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 2.41 and a current ratio of 3.54. The company has a market capitalization of $1.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.63 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.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.46 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $184.80 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $180.57 million. Veeco Instruments had a net margin of 11.34% and a return on equity of 10.92%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.41 EPS. As a group, equities 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 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 sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 80,142 shares in the company, valued at $2,297,671.14. This trade represents a 3.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders have sold a total of 7,500 shares of company stock valued at $225,850 in the last 90 days. 2.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Veeco Instruments from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Northland Securities dropped their price target on shares of Veeco Instruments from $53.00 to $47.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Benchmark cut their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $35.00 to $30.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Oppenheimer decreased their price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments from $45.00 to $40.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $42.14.

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.