Northern Trust Corp Raises Stock Position in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO)

Northern Trust Corp grew its position in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO - Free Report) by 14.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 662,427 shares of the semiconductor company's stock after acquiring an additional 85,265 shares during the quarter. Northern Trust Corp owned about 1.17% of Veeco Instruments worth $17,753,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in VECO. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 311,886 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $10,333,000 after buying an additional 2,583 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 14.2% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 199,156 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $5,337,000 after buying an additional 24,779 shares during the last quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 21.0% in the 4th quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,589 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $284,000 after buying an additional 1,835 shares during the last quarter. Inspire Investing LLC boosted its stake in Veeco Instruments by 7.5% in the 4th quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 14,886 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $399,000 after purchasing an additional 1,040 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers boosted its stake in Veeco Instruments by 3.9% in the 4th quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 163,066 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $4,370,000 after purchasing an additional 6,125 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.46% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently commented on the stock. Benchmark lowered their target price on shares of Veeco Instruments from $38.00 to $31.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Needham & Company LLC decreased their price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments from $35.00 to $29.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments from $33.00 to $30.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Oppenheimer restated an "outperform" rating and set a $35.00 price objective (down from $40.00) on shares of Veeco Instruments in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments from $27.00 to $20.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 9th. Three 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 an average price target of $30.43.

Veeco Instruments Stock Performance

NASDAQ VECO traded down $0.71 on Friday, hitting $20.55. 483,735 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 743,337. The company has a current ratio of 3.98, a quick ratio of 2.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $19.74 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $24.01. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a 1-year low of $16.92 and a 1-year high of $49.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.20 billion, a PE ratio of 16.57 and a beta of 1.13.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The semiconductor company reported $0.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.05. Veeco Instruments had a net margin of 10.28% and a return on equity of 9.38%. 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 posted $0.45 EPS. The business's revenue was down 4.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 0.76 EPS for the current 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.