272 Capital LP Takes Position in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO)

272 Capital LP acquired a new position in shares of Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 1,522 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $50,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. EFG Asset Management North America Corp. lifted its position in Veeco Instruments by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter. EFG Asset Management North America Corp. now owns 67,588 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $3,156,000 after acquiring an additional 319 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE lifted its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 14.8% during the 3rd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 3,864 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $128,000 after purchasing an additional 498 shares during the last quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System boosted its stake in Veeco Instruments by 2.2% during the 2nd quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 28,500 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,331,000 after purchasing an additional 600 shares during the period. KBC Group NV grew its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 46.8% in the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,088 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $69,000 after buying an additional 666 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Signaturefd LLC increased its position in Veeco Instruments by 130.6% in the 3rd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,328 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $44,000 after buying an additional 752 shares during the period. 98.46% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Veeco Instruments Trading Down 0.0 %

Shares of VECO stock opened at $27.73 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $29.16 and a 200-day moving average of $35.74. The stock has a market cap of $1.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.55 and a beta of 1.15. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a 52-week low of $25.52 and a 52-week high of $49.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 2.41 and a current ratio of 3.54.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on VECO shares. Oppenheimer reduced 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. StockNews.com raised shares of Veeco Instruments from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Benchmark dropped their price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments from $35.00 to $30.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $42.14.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.63, for a total transaction of $81,575.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 82,642 shares in the company, valued at $2,696,608.46. This trade represents a 2.94 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 2.40% 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.