Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) Shares Sold by Assenagon Asset Management S.A.

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. trimmed its stake in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO - Free Report) by 70.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 174,377 shares of the semiconductor company's stock after selling 423,637 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. owned 0.31% of Veeco Instruments worth $5,777,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. EFG Asset Management North America Corp. lifted its position in Veeco Instruments by 0.5% during the second quarter. EFG Asset Management North America Corp. now owns 67,588 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $3,156,000 after acquiring an additional 319 shares during the last quarter. Mark Sheptoff Financial Planning LLC boosted its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 1.9% in the 1st quarter. Mark Sheptoff Financial Planning LLC now owns 21,350 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $751,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares in the last quarter. Pitcairn Co. grew its stake in Veeco Instruments by 3.1% during the 1st quarter. Pitcairn Co. now owns 18,675 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $657,000 after buying an additional 559 shares during the last quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System grew 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 worth $1,331,000 after buying an additional 600 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Texas Permanent School Fund Corp increased its position in Veeco Instruments by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 49,310 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $1,734,000 after buying an additional 639 shares in the last quarter. 98.46% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on VECO shares. Citigroup lowered Veeco Instruments from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $45.00 to $50.00 in a research note on Monday, July 15th. Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating and set a $55.00 price target on shares of Veeco Instruments in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Benchmark reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $42.00 price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on Veeco Instruments from $39.00 to $35.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, Northland Securities reduced their target price on Veeco Instruments from $53.00 to $47.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Veeco Instruments currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $45.57.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Veeco Instruments news, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 82,642 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,696,608.46. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 2.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Veeco Instruments Stock Performance

VECO traded down $0.01 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $29.97. 1,789,756 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 661,134. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $32.07 and its 200 day simple moving average is $37.70. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -66.60 and a beta of 1.16. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a 1-year low of $23.63 and a 1-year high of $49.25. The company has a current ratio of 3.52, a quick ratio of 2.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.42 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.43 by ($0.01). Veeco Instruments had a return on equity of 12.03% and a net margin of 11.83%. The company had revenue of $175.88 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $176.03 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.21 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 8.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 1.2 earnings per share for the current year.

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.