New York State Common Retirement Fund Increases Stock Holdings in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO)

New York State Common Retirement Fund lifted its position in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) by 249.0% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 430,757 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after purchasing an additional 307,348 shares during the quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in Veeco Instruments were worth $14,271,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. First Eagle Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments by 11.4% in the first quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 292,848 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $10,299,000 after purchasing an additional 30,000 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC boosted its stake in Veeco Instruments by 280.7% during the first quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 38,949 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,370,000 after buying an additional 28,719 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in Veeco Instruments by 5.6% during the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 598,014 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $27,933,000 after buying an additional 31,482 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Veeco Instruments by 5.8% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,131,073 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $250,800,000 after buying an additional 391,346 shares during the period. Finally, Sei Investments Co. boosted its stake in Veeco Instruments by 130.7% during the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 48,075 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,691,000 after buying an additional 27,234 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.46% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on VECO. StockNews.com raised shares of Veeco Instruments from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target 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. Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $42.00 target price on shares of Veeco Instruments in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Citigroup lowered shares of Veeco Instruments from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $45.00 to $50.00 in a research report on Monday, July 15th. Finally, Northland Securities lowered their price objective 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. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $45.57.

Veeco Instruments Price Performance

Veeco Instruments stock opened at $29.14 on Wednesday. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a one year low of $24.56 and a one year high of $49.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 2.32 and a current ratio of 3.52. The business has a fifty day moving average of $31.56 and a two-hundred day moving average of $37.59. The company has a market cap of $1.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.62 and a beta of 1.17.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.42 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by ($0.01). Veeco Instruments had a net margin of 11.83% and a return on equity of 12.03%. The business had revenue of $175.88 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $176.03 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.21 EPS. Veeco Instruments’s revenue was up 8.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 1.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Veeco Instruments

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 value of $81,575.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 82,642 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,696,608.46. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 2.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.