Penn Capital Management Company LLC Buys New Stake in Veeco Instruments Inc. $VECO

Key Points

• Penn Capital Management Company LLC invested $884,000 in Veeco Instruments, acquiring 44,034 shares, making it a notable institutional investor in the company.
• Wall Street analysts have mixed outlooks for Veeco Instruments, with a consensus price target of $27.33, reflecting a "Moderate Buy" rating overall.
• Veeco Instruments reported a quarterly earnings beat with $0.36 EPS, surpassing estimates, but experienced a revenue decline of 5.6% year-over-year.

Penn Capital Management Company LLC acquired a new position in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 44,034 shares of the semiconductor company's stock, valued at approximately $884,000. Penn Capital Management Company LLC owned about 0.08% of Veeco Instruments as of its most recent SEC filing.

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

Veeco Instruments Stock Performance

Shares of VECO stock traded up $0.91 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $24.91. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,958,932 shares, compared to its average volume of 762,122. The company has a 50 day moving average of $21.84 and a 200 day moving average of $21.06. The stock has a market cap of $1.50 billion, a PE ratio of 24.42 and a beta of 1.12. The company has a current ratio of 5.10, a quick ratio of 3.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a 12-month low of $16.92 and a 12-month high of $36.39.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.36 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 net margin of 8.65% and a return on equity of 7.38%. The business's revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.42 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 0.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Veeco Instruments

In related news, SVP Adrian Devasahayam sold 11,010 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.50, for a total value of $225,705.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 89,254 shares in the company, valued at $1,829,707. The trade was a 10.98% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 2.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have weighed in on VECO. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on shares of Veeco Instruments from $27.00 to $20.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 9th. Needham & Company LLC boosted their target price on shares of Veeco Instruments from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of 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. Finally, Benchmark dropped their target price on shares of Veeco Instruments from $31.00 to $28.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Veeco Instruments presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $27.33.

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.