Nuveen Asset Management LLC Decreases Stock Position in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO)

Nuveen Asset Management LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO - Free Report) by 25.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 241,713 shares of the semiconductor company's stock after selling 81,298 shares during the quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC owned approximately 0.43% of Veeco Instruments worth $6,478,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in VECO. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 257.4% during the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,276 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 919 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 acquiring an additional 1,067 shares during the period. Pitcairn Co. lifted its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 12.1% during the 4th quarter. Pitcairn Co. now owns 13,444 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $360,000 after acquiring an additional 1,451 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 474,391 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $12,715,000 after acquiring an additional 1,799 shares during the period. Finally, MetLife Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 1,887 shares during the period. 98.46% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently weighed in on VECO shares. Needham & Company LLC dropped their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $35.00 to $29.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price target 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. Wall Street Zen raised Veeco Instruments from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Citigroup decreased their price target on Veeco Instruments from $33.00 to $30.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Oppenheimer reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $35.00 price target (down previously from $40.00) on shares of Veeco Instruments in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $30.43.

Veeco Instruments Trading Up 3.9%

Shares of Veeco Instruments stock traded up $0.75 on Tuesday, hitting $20.09. 247,827 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 746,559. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a one year low of $16.92 and a one year high of $49.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 3.98 and a quick ratio of 2.69. The company has a fifty day moving average of $19.32 and a two-hundred day moving average of $23.31. The company has a market capitalization of $1.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.20 and a beta of 1.13.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The semiconductor company reported $0.37 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.05. Veeco Instruments had a return on equity of 9.38% and a net margin of 10.28%. The company had revenue of $167.29 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $166.00 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.45 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 4.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 0.76 earnings per share for the current 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.