Fisher Asset Management LLC Trims Stake in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO)

Fisher Asset Management LLC cut its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) by 18.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 716,183 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 157,105 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC owned about 1.27% of Veeco Instruments worth $22,223,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of VECO. NBC Securities Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Veeco Instruments in the third quarter valued at about $26,000. Federated Hermes Inc. bought a new position in shares of Veeco Instruments during the third quarter worth $33,000. Covestor Ltd grew its stake in Veeco Instruments by 1,311.0% during the third quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,284 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 1,193 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 28.3% in the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 3,543 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $100,000 after acquiring an additional 782 shares during the last quarter. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale purchased a new stake in Veeco Instruments in the 3rd quarter worth $211,000. 98.46% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Adrian Devasahayam sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.10, for a total value of $170,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 67,278 shares in the company, valued at $2,294,179.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Veeco Instruments news, CEO William John Miller sold 24,201 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.30, for a total transaction of $854,295.30. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 545,091 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,241,712.30. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Adrian Devasahayam sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.10, for a total transaction of $170,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 67,278 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,294,179.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 2.20% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently commented on VECO. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on Veeco Instruments from $31.00 to $35.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Benchmark raised their target price on shares of Veeco Instruments from $34.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments from $36.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Veeco Instruments from $28.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 16th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $36.57.

Veeco Instruments Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ VECO opened at $36.37 on Monday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $35.17 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $31.66. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a 1 year low of $17.70 and a 1 year high of $37.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 3.24 and a quick ratio of 2.15.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 14th. The semiconductor company reported $0.40 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.31 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $173.92 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $170.00 million. Veeco Instruments had a positive return on equity of 11.10% and a negative net margin of 4.56%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 1.39 EPS 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.