Neumeier Poma Investment Counsel LLC Has $8.13 Million Holdings in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO)

Key Points

• Neumeier Poma Investment Counsel LLC has reduced its stake in Veeco Instruments Inc. by 3.4% to approximately $8.1 million, while other institutional investors have significantly increased their holdings during the same period.
• Veeco Instruments reported earnings of $0.36 per share for the most recent quarter, exceeding analysts' expectations, despite a 5.6% decline in revenue year-over-year.
• Barclays and Goldman Sachs recently lowered their price targets for Veeco Instruments, indicating a cautious outlook amidst a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a target price of $30.43.

Neumeier Poma Investment Counsel LLC reduced its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO - Free Report) by 3.4% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 404,852 shares of the semiconductor company's stock after selling 14,355 shares during the period. Neumeier Poma Investment Counsel LLC owned 0.70% of Veeco Instruments worth $8,129,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in VECO. Wells Fargo & Company MN raised its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 29.1% during the 4th quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 221,912 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $5,947,000 after buying an additional 50,045 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in Veeco Instruments by 14.5% during the fourth quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 62,602 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $1,678,000 after purchasing an additional 7,915 shares in the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. boosted its position in Veeco Instruments by 73.8% during the fourth quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 26,062 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $698,000 after purchasing an additional 11,067 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in Veeco Instruments by 7.7% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 388,451 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $10,410,000 after purchasing an additional 27,778 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Veeco Instruments in the fourth quarter valued at about $14,373,000. 98.46% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

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 transaction of $225,705.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 89,254 shares in the company, valued at $1,829,707. The trade was a 10.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders own 2.30% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on VECO. Needham & Company LLC raised their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday. Barclays dropped their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $22.00 to $21.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Benchmark lowered their price target on Veeco Instruments from $31.00 to $28.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reduced 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. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Veeco Instruments has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $27.33.

Veeco Instruments Stock Performance

Shares of VECO traded up $0.12 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $23.73. The stock had a trading volume of 366,383 shares, compared to its average volume of 735,970. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $16.92 and a fifty-two week high of $38.88. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $20.90 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $21.06. The company has a quick ratio of 3.43, a current ratio of 5.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. The company has a market cap of $1.43 billion, a PE ratio of 23.21 and a beta of 1.12.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.36 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.22 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $166.10 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 quarter last year, the firm posted $0.42 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 0.76 earnings per share for the current year.

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.