New York State Common Retirement Fund Grows Stock Holdings in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO)

New York State Common Retirement Fund grew its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO - Free Report) by 48.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 80,097 shares of the semiconductor company's stock after purchasing an additional 26,122 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned approximately 0.14% of Veeco Instruments worth $2,485,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in Veeco Instruments by 0.8% during the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 485,924 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $13,659,000 after acquiring an additional 3,768 shares in the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank boosted its stake in Veeco Instruments by 25.6% during the third quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 11,507 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $323,000 after acquiring an additional 2,347 shares in the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp boosted its stake in Veeco Instruments by 202.0% during the third quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 28,122 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $755,000 after acquiring an additional 18,810 shares in the last quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund boosted its stake in Veeco Instruments by 3.7% during the third quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund now owns 16,723 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $470,000 after acquiring an additional 600 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its stake in Veeco Instruments by 28.3% during the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 3,543 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $100,000 after acquiring an additional 782 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.46% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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 transaction of $854,295.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 545,091 shares in the company, valued at $19,241,712.30. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 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 transaction of $854,295.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 545,091 shares in the company, valued at $19,241,712.30. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Adrian Devasahayam sold 5,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.10, for a total value of $170,500.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 67,278 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,294,179.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 2.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Veeco Instruments Trading Up 4.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ VECO traded up $1.80 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $39.29. The stock had a trading volume of 977,900 shares, compared to its average volume of 527,748. The company has a current ratio of 3.24, a quick ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41. The firm has a market cap of $2.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -61.68 and a beta of 1.18. The business's fifty day moving average price is $35.25 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $31.86. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a 52-week low of $19.05 and a 52-week high of $40.30.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on VECO shares. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments from $36.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Benchmark upped their target price on shares of Veeco Instruments from $34.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments from $43.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $31.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on Veeco Instruments from $33.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Wednesday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $38.43.

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.