GSA Capital Partners LLP Acquires Shares of 8,899 Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO)

GSA Capital Partners LLP acquired a new stake in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 8,899 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $295,000.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Tidal Investments LLC lifted its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 280.7% in the first quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 38,949 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,370,000 after buying an additional 28,719 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 5.6% in the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 598,014 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $27,933,000 after buying an additional 31,482 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 5.8% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,131,073 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $250,800,000 after buying an additional 391,346 shares in the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. lifted its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 130.7% in the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 48,075 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,691,000 after buying an additional 27,234 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Great Lakes Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Veeco Instruments in the second quarter valued at $4,219,000. 98.46% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

VECO has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Northland Securities dropped 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 note on Wednesday, August 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased 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 note on Thursday, November 7th. StockNews.com raised shares of Veeco Instruments from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Oppenheimer dropped their target price on shares of Veeco Instruments from $45.00 to $40.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $55.00 target price on shares of Veeco Instruments in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently 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 firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.63, for a total value of $81,575.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 82,642 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,696,608.46. This trade represents a 2.94 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 7,500 shares of company stock valued at $225,850. 2.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Veeco Instruments Trading Up 3.2 %

NASDAQ:VECO opened at $27.40 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 3.54, a quick ratio of 2.41 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.56 billion, a PE ratio of 20.30 and a beta of 1.17. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $30.25 and its 200 day moving average is $36.85. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a 12 month low of $25.52 and a 12 month high of $49.25.

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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.01. Veeco Instruments had a return on equity of 10.92% and a net margin of 11.34%. The business had revenue of $184.80 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $180.57 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.41 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 1.12 earnings per share for the current year.

About Veeco Instruments

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.