Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Has $911,000 Holdings in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System decreased its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) by 3.5% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 27,500 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 1,000 shares during the period. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Veeco Instruments were worth $911,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Driehaus Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Veeco Instruments by 119.3% during the second quarter. Driehaus Capital Management LLC now owns 1,458,288 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $68,117,000 after purchasing an additional 793,429 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments by 5.8% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,131,073 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $250,800,000 after buying an additional 391,346 shares during the period. Mesirow Institutional Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in Veeco Instruments in the 2nd quarter valued at $8,857,000. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund raised its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 132.1% in the 1st quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 195,000 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $6,858,000 after acquiring an additional 111,000 shares during the period. Finally, Great Lakes Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Veeco Instruments during the 2nd quarter worth $4,219,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.46% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Citigroup lowered Veeco Instruments from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $45.00 to $50.00 in a research note on Monday, July 15th. Benchmark reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $42.00 price target on shares of Veeco Instruments in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Northland Securities lowered their price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments from $53.00 to $47.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $55.00 target price on shares of Veeco Instruments in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price target on shares of Veeco Instruments from $39.00 to $35.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $45.57.

Veeco Instruments Stock Up 0.0 %

Shares of VECO stock opened at $28.79 on Monday. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a one year low of $24.33 and a one year high of $49.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 3.52 and a quick ratio of 2.32. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $31.72 and a 200 day moving average price of $37.60. The stock has a market cap of $1.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.42 and a beta of 1.17.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.42 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $175.88 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $176.03 million. Veeco Instruments had a return on equity of 12.03% and a net margin of 11.83%. Veeco Instruments’s revenue was up 8.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.21 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 1.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Veeco Instruments

In other news, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.63, for a total value of $81,575.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 82,642 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,696,608.46. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 2.40% of the company’s stock.

Veeco Instruments Company 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.