Comerica Bank Decreases Stock Holdings in Veeco Instruments Inc. $VECO

Key Points

• Comerica Bank reduced its stake in Veeco Instruments by 29.8%, selling 132,274 shares and owning approximately $6.27 million worth of stock post-sale.
• Institutional investors showed mixed activity, with Versant Capital Management increasing its stake by 396.2%, while Barclays and Goldman Sachs lowered their price targets for Veeco Instruments.
• Veeco Instruments reported earnings of $0.36 EPS, which surpassed analyst expectations, despite a 5.6% year-over-year decline in revenue.

Comerica Bank reduced its position in shares of Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO - Free Report) by 29.8% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 312,095 shares of the semiconductor company's stock after selling 132,274 shares during the quarter. Comerica Bank owned 0.54% of Veeco Instruments worth $6,267,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 342.6% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 8,807 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $177,000 after purchasing an additional 6,817 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 9.8% during the 1st quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 68,747 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $1,380,000 after purchasing an additional 6,145 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 4.0% during the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 341,069 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $6,849,000 after purchasing an additional 13,182 shares during the period. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 31,609 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $847,000 after buying an additional 1,067 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 10,288.7% during the 1st quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 13,817 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $277,000 after buying an additional 13,684 shares in the last quarter. 98.46% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on VECO shares. Benchmark lowered their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $31.00 to $28.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Barclays lowered their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $22.00 to $21.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $27.00 to $20.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 9th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $27.33.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Adrian Devasahayam sold 11,010 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.50, for a total transaction of $225,705.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 89,254 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,829,707. This represents a 10.98% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 2.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Veeco Instruments Price Performance

NASDAQ VECO traded down $0.40 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $23.34. The company's stock had a trading volume of 59,464 shares, compared to its average volume of 757,709. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $22.18 and its 200-day moving average price is $21.04. The company has a quick ratio of 3.43, a current ratio of 5.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a 1 year low of $16.92 and a 1 year high of $34.34. The company has a market capitalization of $1.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.91 and a beta of 1.23.

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