Versor Investments LP Makes New Investment in Veeco Instruments Inc. $VECO

Key Points

• Versor Investments LP has acquired 15,400 shares of Veeco Instruments Inc., valued at approximately $309,000, marking a new position for the institutional investor in the semiconductor company.
• Major investment firms such as GAMMA Investing LLC and Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. have significantly increased their stakes in Veeco Instruments, with some positions growing by over 10,000% in the first quarter.
• Analysts have mixed sentiments about Veeco Instruments, with Goldman Sachs lowering its price target from $27.00 to $20.00 while Needham & Company LLC increased it from $29.00 to $30.00, indicating a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy".

Versor Investments LP bought a new stake in shares of Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 15,400 shares of the semiconductor company's stock, valued at approximately $309,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of VECO. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 14.5% in the 4th quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 62,602 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $1,678,000 after acquiring an additional 7,915 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,242,750 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $60,107,000 after purchasing an additional 78,884 shares in the last quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 5.9% during the 4th quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 33,962 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $910,000 after purchasing an additional 1,887 shares in the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC increased its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 54.9% during the 4th quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 10,009 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $268,000 after purchasing an additional 3,548 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC increased its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 146.2% during the 4th quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 69,062 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $1,870,000 after purchasing an additional 41,011 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.46% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

VECO has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC raised their price target on Veeco Instruments from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Benchmark lowered their target price on Veeco Instruments from $31.00 to $28.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Barclays lowered their target price on Veeco Instruments from $22.00 to $21.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on Veeco Instruments from $27.00 to $20.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 9th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Veeco Instruments has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $27.33.

Veeco Instruments Stock Down 3.1%

Shares of VECO traded down $0.77 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $24.00. The stock had a trading volume of 2,662,277 shares, compared to its average volume of 939,886. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 5.10 and a quick ratio of 3.43. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $21.84 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $21.06. The firm has a market cap of $1.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.53 and a beta of 1.12. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a twelve month low of $16.92 and a twelve month high of $36.39.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.22 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $166.10 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $151.31 million. Veeco Instruments had a return on equity of 7.38% and a net margin of 8.65%.Veeco Instruments's quarterly revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.42 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 0.76 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Adrian Devasahayam sold 11,010 shares of Veeco Instruments stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.50, for a total value of $225,705.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 89,254 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,829,707. The trade was a 10.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 2.40% of the company's stock.

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.