Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) Shares Acquired by GAMMA Investing LLC

GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO - Free Report) by 8,786.7% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 176,845 shares of the semiconductor company's stock after purchasing an additional 174,855 shares during the quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC owned 0.31% of Veeco Instruments worth $3,551,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Veeco Instruments by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,477,260 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $200,391,000 after acquiring an additional 110,825 shares in the last quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP raised its position in Veeco Instruments by 5.8% during the fourth quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 2,792,850 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $74,848,000 after acquiring an additional 152,201 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its position in Veeco Instruments by 24.0% during the fourth quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 2,748,172 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $73,651,000 after acquiring an additional 531,821 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in Veeco Instruments by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,242,750 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $60,107,000 after acquiring an additional 78,884 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wealthfront Advisers LLC purchased a new position in Veeco Instruments during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,676,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.46% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Veeco Instruments news, SVP Adrian Devasahayam sold 11,010 shares of the business's stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the senior vice president now owns 89,254 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $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 SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 2.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

VECO has been the subject of several recent research reports. Wall Street Zen upgraded Veeco Instruments from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Barclays cut their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $22.00 to $21.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $27.00 to $20.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 9th. Three equities research 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, Veeco Instruments has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $30.43.

Veeco Instruments Price Performance

Shares of Veeco Instruments stock traded down $0.92 on Friday, reaching $20.43. The company's stock had a trading volume of 456,413 shares, compared to its average volume of 748,075. The company has a quick ratio of 2.69, a current ratio of 3.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a 52-week low of $16.92 and a 52-week high of $49.25. The company has a market capitalization of $1.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.48 and a beta of 1.11. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $19.60 and a 200-day moving average price of $22.96.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The semiconductor company reported $0.37 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $167.29 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $166.00 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.45 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 4.1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 0.76 EPS 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.