14,068 Shares in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) Bought by Sherbrooke Park Advisers LLC

Sherbrooke Park Advisers LLC bought a new position in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm bought 14,068 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $377,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of VECO. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in Veeco Instruments by 0.8% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 311,886 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $10,333,000 after purchasing an additional 2,583 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments by 14.2% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 199,156 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $5,337,000 after acquiring an additional 24,779 shares during the period. Avior Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments by 21.0% during the fourth quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,589 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $284,000 after acquiring an additional 1,835 shares during the period. Inspire Investing LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments by 7.5% during the fourth quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 14,886 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $399,000 after acquiring an additional 1,040 shares during the period. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers lifted its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 163,066 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $4,370,000 after acquiring an additional 6,125 shares during the period. 98.46% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have issued reports on VECO. Barclays cut their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $22.00 to $21.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Needham & Company LLC cut their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $35.00 to $29.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $27.00 to $20.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 9th. Citigroup cut their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $33.00 to $30.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Benchmark cut their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $38.00 to $31.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Veeco Instruments presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $30.43.

Veeco Instruments Stock Performance

Veeco Instruments stock opened at $20.55 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $19.74 and a 200 day simple moving average of $24.01. The company has a quick ratio of 2.69, a current ratio of 3.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a 12-month low of $16.92 and a 12-month high of $49.25. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.57 and a beta of 1.13.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The semiconductor company reported $0.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.32 by $0.05. Veeco Instruments had a return on equity of 9.38% and a net margin of 10.28%. The business had revenue of $167.29 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $166.00 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.45 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 0.76 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.