Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) Shares Sold by Pitcairn Co.

Pitcairn Co. lessened its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) by 39.5% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 11,993 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 7,822 shares during the period. Pitcairn Co.’s holdings in Veeco Instruments were worth $397,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Intech Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Veeco Instruments in the third quarter valued at $529,000. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC boosted its position in Veeco Instruments by 165.0% in the 3rd quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC now owns 370,917 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $12,288,000 after buying an additional 230,971 shares during the last quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 34.2% during the third quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 8,754 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $290,000 after acquiring an additional 2,231 shares in the last quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG purchased a new stake in shares of Veeco Instruments during the third quarter worth about $1,368,000. Finally, Quest Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 47.0% in the third quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 8,922 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $296,000 after acquiring an additional 2,853 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.46% of the company’s stock.

Veeco Instruments Trading Down 3.0 %

Veeco Instruments stock opened at $27.13 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 2.41 and a current ratio of 3.54. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a 1 year low of $25.52 and a 1 year high of $49.25. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $30.20 and its 200-day moving average is $36.75. The company has a market cap of $1.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.10 and a beta of 1.17.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.46 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $184.80 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $180.57 million. Veeco Instruments had a return on equity of 10.92% and a net margin of 11.34%. Veeco Instruments’s quarterly revenue was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.41 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 1.12 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Veeco Instruments news, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.63, for a total value of $81,575.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 82,642 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,696,608.46. This trade represents a 2.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders sold a total of 7,500 shares of company stock worth $225,850 in the last three months. 2.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have issued reports on VECO. Benchmark dropped their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Northland Securities dropped their price target on shares of Veeco Instruments from $53.00 to $47.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Oppenheimer reduced their price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments from $45.00 to $40.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. StockNews.com raised shares of Veeco Instruments from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on shares of Veeco Instruments from $35.00 to $30.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Veeco Instruments presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $42.14.

Veeco Instruments Company 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.