Victory Capital Management Inc. Reduces Stock Position in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO)

Victory Capital Management Inc. lessened its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO - Free Report) by 10.5% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 428,215 shares of the semiconductor company's stock after selling 50,473 shares during the quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. owned about 0.75% of Veeco Instruments worth $14,187,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of VECO. Signaturefd LLC grew its stake in Veeco Instruments by 130.6% in the third quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,328 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $44,000 after purchasing an additional 752 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 237.4% in the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,677 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $78,000 after acquiring an additional 1,180 shares in the last quarter. nVerses Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments by 733.3% in the 2nd quarter. nVerses Capital LLC now owns 2,500 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $117,000 after buying an additional 2,200 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE grew its position in Veeco Instruments by 14.8% during the 3rd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 3,864 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $128,000 after acquiring an additional 498 shares during the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in Veeco Instruments by 3,213.1% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,804 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $145,000 after acquiring an additional 4,659 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.46% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VECO has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Oppenheimer decreased their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $45.00 to $40.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Benchmark lowered their target price on Veeco Instruments from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. StockNews.com raised Veeco Instruments from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on Veeco Instruments from $35.00 to $30.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Northland Securities reduced their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $53.00 to $47.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $42.14.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Veeco Instruments news, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.63, for a total value of $81,575.00. Following 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 7,500 shares of company stock worth $225,850. 2.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Veeco Instruments Price Performance

NASDAQ:VECO traded up $0.16 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $26.15. The stock had a trading volume of 631,184 shares, compared to its average volume of 661,062. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $30.40 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $36.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.37 and a beta of 1.17. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a one year low of $25.52 and a one year high of $49.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 3.54 and a quick ratio of 2.41.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.46 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.01. Veeco Instruments had a net margin of 11.34% and a return on equity of 10.92%. The company had revenue of $184.80 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $180.57 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.41 earnings per share. Veeco Instruments's revenue for the quarter was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 1.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.