Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Acquires 569 Shares of Veeco Instruments Inc. $VECO

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System raised its position in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) by 3.3% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 17,614 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after acquiring an additional 569 shares during the quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in Veeco Instruments were worth $358,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Brooklyn Investment Group purchased a new position in shares of Veeco Instruments during the first quarter valued at about $37,000. Signaturefd LLC lifted its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 213.9% in the first quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 3,139 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $63,000 after buying an additional 2,139 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE lifted its position in Veeco Instruments by 33.6% during the first quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 3,366 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $68,000 after purchasing an additional 847 shares during the period. KBC Group NV lifted its position in Veeco Instruments by 75.9% during the first quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 3,672 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $74,000 after purchasing an additional 1,584 shares during the period. Finally, Russell Investments Group Ltd. lifted its position in Veeco Instruments by 46.3% during the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 5,841 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $117,000 after purchasing an additional 1,849 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.46% of the company’s stock.

Veeco Instruments Trading Down 2.5%

NASDAQ VECO opened at $27.81 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 3.43 and a current ratio of 5.10. The company has a market capitalization of $1.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.26 and a beta of 1.27. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $26.51 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $22.28. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a one year low of $16.92 and a one year high of $34.45.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.36 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.22 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $166.10 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $151.31 million. Veeco Instruments had a net margin of 8.65% and a return on equity of 7.38%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.42 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 0.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Adrian Devasahayam sold 4,046 shares of Veeco Instruments stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.00, for a total value of $105,196.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 86,134 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,239,484. The trade was a 4.49% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO William John Miller sold 25,000 shares of Veeco Instruments stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.00, for a total transaction of $800,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 514,543 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,465,376. The trade was a 4.63% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 61,911 shares of company stock worth $1,781,550. Insiders own 2.30% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VECO has been the subject of a number of research reports. Benchmark reduced their target price on shares of Veeco Instruments from $31.00 to $28.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Veeco Instruments in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Northland Securities cut shares of Veeco Instruments from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and set a $30.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. Northland Capmk lowered shares of Veeco Instruments from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC lowered shares of Veeco Instruments from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $27.71.

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.