Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) Shares Bought by Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC

Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC raised its position in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) by 4.5% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 384,310 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after acquiring an additional 16,557 shares during the period. Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC’s holdings in Veeco Instruments were worth $13,516,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Yousif Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 29,810 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $925,000 after purchasing an additional 322 shares during the period. Mark Sheptoff Financial Planning LLC lifted its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 1.9% in the first quarter. Mark Sheptoff Financial Planning LLC now owns 21,350 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $751,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares during the period. Pitcairn Co. lifted its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 3.1% in the first quarter. Pitcairn Co. now owns 18,675 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $657,000 after purchasing an additional 559 shares during the period. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp lifted its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 1.3% in the first quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 49,310 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,734,000 after purchasing an additional 639 shares during the period. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 4.1% in the fourth quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 23,216 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $720,000 after purchasing an additional 918 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.46% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Veeco Instruments

In other news, Director Dennis Thomas St sold 4,000 shares of Veeco Instruments stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.72, for a total transaction of $150,880.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 51,861 shares in the company, valued at $1,956,196.92. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In related news, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.46, for a total value of $121,150.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 94,809 shares in the company, valued at $4,594,444.14. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Dennis Thomas St sold 4,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.72, for a total transaction of $150,880.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 51,861 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,956,196.92. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 39,000 shares of company stock worth $1,526,205 over the last ninety days. 2.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on VECO. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments from $33.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 8th. Citigroup cut shares of Veeco Instruments from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $45.00 to $50.00 in a research note on Monday, July 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of Veeco Instruments from $35.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 9th. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on shares of Veeco Instruments from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 27th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC lifted their target price on shares of Veeco Instruments from $43.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 8th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Veeco Instruments presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $43.14.

Veeco Instruments Stock Down 2.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ VECO opened at $38.76 on Wednesday. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a 12 month low of $23.63 and a 12 month high of $49.25. The company has a current ratio of 3.05, a quick ratio of 2.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $44.15 and a 200-day simple moving average of $38.21.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The semiconductor company reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.30 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $174.48 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $170.00 million. Veeco Instruments had a negative net margin of 2.51% and a positive return on equity of 11.97%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 1.31 earnings per share for the current year.

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.