Proficio Capital Partners LLC Takes $311,000 Position in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO)

Proficio Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 11,604 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $311,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of VECO. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Veeco Instruments by 257.4% during the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,276 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 919 shares during the period. 272 Capital LP acquired a new position in shares of Veeco Instruments in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $50,000. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments by 721.7% during the 3rd quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. now owns 5,341 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $177,000 after acquiring an additional 4,691 shares during the period. Avior Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 21.0% during the 4th quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,589 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $284,000 after acquiring an additional 1,835 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quest Partners LLC increased its stake in Veeco Instruments by 47.0% in the third quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 8,922 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $296,000 after acquiring an additional 2,853 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.46% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on VECO shares. Needham & Company LLC cut their target price on Veeco Instruments from $35.00 to $29.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. StockNews.com upgraded Veeco Instruments from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Barclays decreased their target price on Veeco Instruments from $30.00 to $25.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Benchmark dropped their target price on shares of Veeco Instruments from $38.00 to $31.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $35.00 price target (down from $40.00) on shares of Veeco Instruments in a report on Friday, February 7th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $32.43.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of Veeco Instruments stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.51, for a total value of $61,275.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 72,642 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,780,455.42. The trade was a 3.33 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 2.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Veeco Instruments Price Performance

Veeco Instruments stock opened at $21.71 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.26 billion, a PE ratio of 17.51 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a current ratio of 3.98, a quick ratio of 2.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $23.75 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $27.30. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a 12 month low of $20.05 and a 12 month high of $49.25.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The semiconductor company reported $0.26 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.40 by ($0.14). Veeco Instruments had a return on equity of 9.38% and a net margin of 10.28%. Analysts expect that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 0.76 EPS 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.