Rhumbline Advisers Boosts Stake in Veeco Instruments Inc. $VECO

Rhumbline Advisers raised its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) by 8.3% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 176,679 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after acquiring an additional 13,613 shares during the period. Rhumbline Advisers owned approximately 0.30% of Veeco Instruments worth $3,548,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VECO. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 342.6% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 8,807 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $177,000 after buying an additional 6,817 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 9.8% in the 1st quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 68,747 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,380,000 after buying an additional 6,145 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 4.0% in the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 341,069 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $6,849,000 after buying an additional 13,182 shares during the period. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. raised its position in Veeco Instruments by 10,288.7% in the first quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 13,817 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $277,000 after purchasing an additional 13,684 shares during the period. Finally, MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its position in Veeco Instruments by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 31,609 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $847,000 after purchasing an additional 1,067 shares during the period. 98.46% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Veeco Instruments Price Performance

Shares of Veeco Instruments stock opened at $26.11 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 5.10, a quick ratio of 3.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.60 and a beta of 1.23. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a 1-year low of $16.92 and a 1-year high of $34.34. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $22.93 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $21.08.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.36 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.22 by $0.14. Veeco Instruments had a net margin of 8.65% and a return on equity of 7.38%. The business had revenue of $166.10 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $151.31 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.42 earnings per share. Veeco Instruments’s revenue was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 0.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently weighed in on VECO shares. Needham & Company LLC raised their target price on Veeco Instruments from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Benchmark decreased their price target on shares of Veeco Instruments from $31.00 to $28.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Veeco Instruments presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $27.33.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Veeco Instruments news, CEO William John Miller sold 25,000 shares of Veeco Instruments stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.00, for a total transaction of $625,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 470,671 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,766,775. The trade was a 5.04% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 2.30% of the company’s stock.

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.