Baillie Gifford & Co. Reduces Holdings in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO)

Baillie Gifford & Co. decreased its stake in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO - Free Report) by 20.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 737,460 shares of the semiconductor company's stock after selling 184,905 shares during the period. Baillie Gifford & Co. owned 1.31% of Veeco Instruments worth $22,883,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in VECO. Fort Sheridan Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Veeco Instruments during the fourth quarter worth $25,000. NBC Securities Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Veeco Instruments in the third quarter worth $26,000. Point72 Middle East FZE acquired a new position in Veeco Instruments in the 2nd quarter valued at $32,000. Federated Hermes Inc. acquired a new position in Veeco Instruments in the 3rd quarter valued at $33,000. Finally, Tower Research Capital LLC TRC boosted its stake in Veeco Instruments by 470.9% during the 1st quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 1,570 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 1,295 shares during the period. 98.46% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Benchmark upped their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $34.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Barclays raised their target price on Veeco Instruments from $28.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Tuesday, January 16th. Citigroup boosted their target price on Veeco Instruments from $36.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $31.00 to $35.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $36.57.

Insider Activity

In other Veeco Instruments news, CEO William John Miller sold 24,201 shares of Veeco Instruments stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.30, for a total transaction of $854,295.30. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 545,091 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $19,241,712.30. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Veeco Instruments news, CEO William John Miller sold 24,201 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.30, for a total value of $854,295.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 545,091 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,241,712.30. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Adrian Devasahayam sold 5,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.10, for a total value of $170,500.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 67,278 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,294,179.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 59,201 shares of company stock worth $1,926,895 over the last 90 days. 2.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Veeco Instruments Trading Up 3.0 %

VECO stock traded up $1.10 during trading on Thursday, hitting $37.41. The company had a trading volume of 407,200 shares, compared to its average volume of 518,474. The stock has a market cap of $2.11 billion, a PE ratio of -57.55 and a beta of 1.20. The business has a 50-day moving average of $34.92 and a 200-day moving average of $30.80. The company has a current ratio of 3.24, a quick ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a one year low of $17.70 and a one year high of $37.75.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 14th. The semiconductor company reported $0.40 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.31 by $0.09. Veeco Instruments had a negative net margin of 4.56% and a positive return on equity of 11.10%. The company had revenue of $173.92 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $170.00 million. Research analysts predict that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 1.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Veeco Instruments Profile

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.