Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) Shares Bought by Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC

Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) by 11.0% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 9,099 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after acquiring an additional 901 shares during the period. Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Veeco Instruments were worth $301,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in VECO. Signaturefd LLC boosted its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 130.6% in the 3rd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,328 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $44,000 after purchasing an additional 752 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in Veeco Instruments by 237.4% in the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,677 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $78,000 after acquiring an additional 1,180 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV lifted its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 46.8% in the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,088 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $69,000 after acquiring an additional 666 shares during the period. nVerses Capital LLC boosted its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 733.3% during the 2nd quarter. nVerses Capital LLC now owns 2,500 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $117,000 after purchasing an additional 2,200 shares in the last quarter. Finally, US Bancorp DE increased its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments by 14.8% in the 3rd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 3,864 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $128,000 after purchasing an additional 498 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.46% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Northland Securities lowered their target price 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. StockNews.com upgraded Veeco Instruments from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Benchmark dropped their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on Veeco Instruments from $35.00 to $30.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Oppenheimer dropped their price target 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 equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Veeco Instruments currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $42.14.

Veeco Instruments Stock Performance

NASDAQ VECO opened at $26.43 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.41, a current ratio of 3.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $26.23 and a fifty-two week high of $49.25. The business has a fifty day moving average of $30.61 and a 200-day moving average of $37.18. The stock has a market cap of $1.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.58 and a beta of 1.17.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.01. Veeco Instruments had a net margin of 11.34% and a return on equity of 10.92%. The company had revenue of $184.80 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $180.57 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.41 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. 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

In related news, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.04, for a total transaction of $72,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 85,142 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,472,523.68. This represents a 2.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 7,500 shares of company stock worth $225,850. 2.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Veeco Instruments Company 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.