Paradigm Capital Management Inc. NY Increases Holdings in Veeco Instruments Inc. $VECO

Key Points

• Paradigm Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 20% in Q1, now owning 2,380,000 shares, representing 2.7% of its portfolio.
• Veeco Instruments' recent quarterly earnings reported an EPS of $0.36, exceeding the consensus estimate of $0.22, while revenue fell 5.6% year-over-year.
• Several analysts have revised their price targets for Veeco Instruments, with Goldman Sachs lowering it to $20 and Needham increasing it to $30, reflecting mixed outlooks from analysts.

Paradigm Capital Management Inc. NY raised its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO - Free Report) by 20.0% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,380,000 shares of the semiconductor company's stock after acquiring an additional 397,200 shares during the period. Veeco Instruments makes up 2.7% of Paradigm Capital Management Inc. NY's investment portfolio, making the stock its 10th biggest holding. Paradigm Capital Management Inc. NY owned 4.08% of Veeco Instruments worth $47,790,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 1,034 shares during the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group acquired a new position in shares of Veeco Instruments in the 1st quarter valued at about $37,000. Signaturefd LLC lifted its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 213.9% during the first quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 3,139 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $63,000 after purchasing an additional 2,139 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE lifted its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 33.6% during the first quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 3,366 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $68,000 after purchasing an additional 847 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV lifted its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 75.9% during the first quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 3,672 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $74,000 after purchasing an additional 1,584 shares in the last quarter. 98.46% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VECO has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on Veeco Instruments from $27.00 to $20.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 9th. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price target on Veeco Instruments from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Benchmark cut their target price on Veeco Instruments from $31.00 to $28.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, Barclays cut their target price on 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. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $27.33.

Veeco Instruments Price Performance

NASDAQ:VECO traded up $0.44 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $24.32. 127,220 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 754,028. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $22.30 and a 200 day moving average price of $21.05. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.46 billion, a PE ratio of 23.81 and a beta of 1.23. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a 1-year low of $16.92 and a 1-year high of $34.34. 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 (NASDAQ:VECO - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.22 by $0.14. Veeco Instruments had a return on equity of 7.38% and a net margin of 8.65%.The firm had revenue of $166.10 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $151.31 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.42 earnings per share. Veeco Instruments's revenue was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 0.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.