Raymond James & Associates Has $5.47 Million Stock Position in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO)

Raymond James & Associates lessened its holdings in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) by 7.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 176,152 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 15,099 shares during the quarter. Raymond James & Associates owned 0.31% of Veeco Instruments worth $5,466,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of VECO. Advisor Group Holdings Inc. boosted its stake in Veeco Instruments by 315.4% in the first quarter. Advisor Group Holdings Inc. now owns 4,644 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $126,000 after buying an additional 3,526 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments by 5.9% during the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 520,086 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $14,139,000 after purchasing an additional 29,035 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. acquired a new position in Veeco Instruments during the 1st quarter worth approximately $815,000. Citigroup Inc. increased its position in Veeco Instruments by 8.9% during the 1st quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 53,649 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,459,000 after purchasing an additional 4,403 shares in the last quarter. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its position in Veeco Instruments by 48.7% in the first quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 4,558 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $124,000 after buying an additional 1,492 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.46% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VECO has been the subject of a number of research reports. Benchmark increased their price target on Veeco Instruments from $34.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Veeco Instruments from $28.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 16th. Citigroup upped their price target 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, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on shares of Veeco Instruments from $31.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Veeco Instruments presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $36.57.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Veeco Instruments news, CEO William John Miller sold 24,201 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 21st. The stock was 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other news, SVP Adrian Devasahayam sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 67,278 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,294,179.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO William John Miller sold 24,201 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.30, for a total value of $854,295.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 545,091 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,241,712.30. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 59,201 shares of company stock valued at $1,926,895 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 2.20% of the company’s stock.

Veeco Instruments Trading Up 3.8 %

NASDAQ:VECO opened at $36.99 on Wednesday. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a 52 week low of $17.70 and a 52 week high of $37.75. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $34.73 and its 200-day moving average is $30.72. The firm has a market cap of $2.08 billion, a P/E ratio of -56.91 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a quick ratio of 2.15 and a current ratio of 3.24.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The semiconductor company reported $0.40 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31 by $0.09. Veeco Instruments had a negative net margin of 4.56% and a positive return on equity of 11.10%. The business had revenue of $173.92 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $170.00 million. Equities analysts expect that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 1.39 earnings per share for the current year.

About Veeco Instruments

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.