The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company Buys 371,221 Shares of Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO)

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its position in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) by 20.1% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 2,216,351 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after purchasing an additional 371,221 shares during the quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company owned 3.90% of Veeco Instruments worth $73,428,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Driehaus Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Veeco Instruments by 119.3% during the second quarter. Driehaus Capital Management LLC now owns 1,458,288 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $68,117,000 after buying an additional 793,429 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Veeco Instruments by 5.8% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,131,073 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $250,800,000 after acquiring an additional 391,346 shares during the last quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP increased its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 37.3% during the 3rd quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP now owns 1,175,759 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $38,953,000 after purchasing an additional 319,451 shares in the last quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund raised its position in Veeco Instruments by 249.0% in the 3rd quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 430,757 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $14,271,000 after purchasing an additional 307,348 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC boosted its stake in Veeco Instruments by 165.0% in the third quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC now owns 370,917 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $12,288,000 after purchasing an additional 230,971 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.46% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on VECO. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $55.00 target price on shares of Veeco Instruments in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. StockNews.com raised shares of Veeco Instruments from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Oppenheimer decreased their price target on shares of Veeco Instruments from $45.00 to $40.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Northland Securities dropped their price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments from $53.00 to $47.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective 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. Four 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 has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $42.14.

Veeco Instruments Stock Performance

VECO stock opened at $27.63 on Thursday. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a twelve month low of $25.52 and a twelve month high of $49.25. The company has a quick ratio of 2.41, a current ratio of 3.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The company has a market cap of $1.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.47 and a beta of 1.17. The business’s fifty day moving average is $30.12 and its 200-day moving average is $36.68.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $184.80 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $180.57 million. Veeco Instruments had a return on equity of 10.92% and a net margin of 11.34%. The company’s revenue was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.41 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 1.12 EPS for the current year.

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 dated Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.63, for a total transaction of $81,575.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 82,642 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,696,608.46. The trade was a 2.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 7,500 shares of company stock worth $225,850. 2.20% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.