Rhumbline Advisers Grows Position in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO)

Rhumbline Advisers increased its position in shares of Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO - Free Report) by 8.3% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 176,679 shares of the semiconductor company's stock after purchasing an additional 13,613 shares during the period. Rhumbline Advisers owned 0.30% of Veeco Instruments worth $3,548,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Mackenzie Financial Corp raised its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 6.1% during the 4th quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 9,391 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $252,000 after purchasing an additional 538 shares during the period. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC raised 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 purchasing an additional 919 shares during the period. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 396.2% during the 1st quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,295 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 1,034 shares during the period. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. increased its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 3.5% in 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 last quarter. Finally, Pitcairn Co. increased its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 12.1% in 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 last quarter. 98.46% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Veeco Instruments news, SVP Adrian Devasahayam sold 11,010 shares of Veeco Instruments 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 now directly owns 89,254 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,829,707. This trade represents a 10.98% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 2.40% of the company's stock.

Veeco Instruments Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:VECO traded down $0.34 on Wednesday, reaching $20.23. The company's stock had a trading volume of 659,410 shares, compared to its average volume of 746,526. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a 52-week low of $16.92 and a 52-week high of $49.25. The company has a market cap of $1.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.91 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $19.71 and a 200 day simple moving average of $22.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 3.02 and a current ratio of 4.44.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The semiconductor company reported $0.37 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.32 by $0.05. Veeco Instruments had a net margin of 8.99% and a return on equity of 8.29%. The business had revenue of $167.29 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $166.00 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.45 EPS. The business's revenue was down 4.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 0.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on VECO. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Veeco Instruments from $22.00 to $21.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on shares of Veeco Instruments from $27.00 to $20.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 9th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Veeco Instruments from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $30.43.

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.