Franklin Resources Inc. Decreases Stake in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO)

Franklin Resources Inc. cut its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) by 10.7% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 86,343 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 10,330 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc.’s holdings in Veeco Instruments were worth $2,914,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Synovus Financial Corp purchased a new position in Veeco Instruments in the third quarter valued at about $633,000. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,337,321 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $44,314,000 after acquiring an additional 22,850 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio purchased a new position in Veeco Instruments in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $1,965,000. Zacks Investment Management raised its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 2.9% during the third quarter. Zacks Investment Management now owns 87,249 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $2,891,000 after purchasing an additional 2,431 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its position in Veeco Instruments by 1.5% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,091,995 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $69,308,000 after purchasing an additional 30,008 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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 Veeco Instruments stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 80,142 shares in the company, valued at $2,297,671.14. This trade represents a 3.03 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 2.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Veeco Instruments Stock Performance

NASDAQ:VECO opened at $27.83 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 3.54 and a quick ratio of 2.41. The firm has a market cap of $1.58 billion, a PE ratio of 20.61 and a beta of 1.15. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $28.27 and a 200-day simple moving average of $34.81. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a 1-year low of $25.52 and a 1-year high of $49.25.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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. Veeco Instruments had a return on equity of 10.92% and a net margin of 11.34%. The company had revenue of $184.80 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $180.57 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.41 EPS. Veeco Instruments’s revenue was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 1.12 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently issued reports on VECO. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on Veeco Instruments from $35.00 to $30.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Benchmark cut their target price on shares of Veeco Instruments from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Veeco Instruments from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Oppenheimer cut their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $45.00 to $40.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $42.14.

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.