Royce & Associates LP Purchases 76,760 Shares of Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO)

Royce & Associates LP boosted its position in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) by 20.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 450,403 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after acquiring an additional 76,760 shares during the period. Royce & Associates LP’s holdings in Veeco Instruments were worth $12,071,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wasatch Advisors LP grew its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 50.3% in the 3rd quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 2,640,649 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $87,485,000 after acquiring an additional 883,815 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 20.1% in the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 2,216,351 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $73,428,000 after purchasing an additional 371,221 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,091,995 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $69,308,000 after purchasing an additional 30,008 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,337,321 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $44,314,000 after purchasing an additional 22,850 shares during the period. Finally, Westfield Capital Management Co. LP lifted its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 37.3% in the 3rd quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP now owns 1,175,759 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $38,953,000 after purchasing an additional 319,451 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 98.46% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Veeco Instruments

In other Veeco Instruments news, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.63, for a total transaction of $69,075.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 75,142 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,076,173.46. This represents a 3.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 2.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently commented on VECO. Needham & Company LLC dropped their target price on shares of Veeco Instruments from $35.00 to $29.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Benchmark dropped 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 report on Thursday, February 13th. StockNews.com raised shares of Veeco Instruments from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $35.00 price target (down from $40.00) on shares of Veeco Instruments in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their price target on shares of Veeco Instruments from $33.00 to $30.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Veeco Instruments currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $32.43.

Veeco Instruments Stock Up 2.0 %

VECO opened at $21.90 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.69, a current ratio of 3.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $24.44 and a 200-day moving average price of $27.77. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a twelve month low of $20.05 and a twelve month high of $49.25. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.66 and a beta of 1.24.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The semiconductor company reported $0.26 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.40 by ($0.14). Veeco Instruments had a net margin of 10.28% and a return on equity of 9.38%. Equities research analysts forecast that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 0.76 earnings per share 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.