Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Lowers Stake in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO)

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans reduced its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) by 5.2% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 44,593 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 2,425 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans’ holdings in Veeco Instruments were worth $1,477,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Tidal Investments LLC grew its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments by 280.7% in the first quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 38,949 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,370,000 after purchasing an additional 28,719 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 5.6% in the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 598,014 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $27,933,000 after acquiring an additional 31,482 shares during the period. Great Lakes Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Veeco Instruments in the second quarter valued at about $4,219,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 122.9% during the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 63,325 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $2,226,000 after acquiring an additional 34,921 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Driehaus Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of 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. 98.46% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Veeco Instruments

In other Veeco Instruments news, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.63, for a total transaction of $81,575.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 82,642 shares in the company, valued at $2,696,608.46. The trade was a 2.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 7,500 shares of company stock worth $225,850. Company insiders own 2.40% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Benchmark decreased their target price on Veeco Instruments from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Northland Securities decreased their price target on shares of Veeco Instruments from $53.00 to $47.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Oppenheimer cut their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $45.00 to $40.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. StockNews.com lowered Veeco Instruments from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on Veeco Instruments from $35.00 to $30.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $42.14.

Veeco Instruments Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of VECO opened at $27.87 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $1.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.64 and a beta of 1.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 3.54 and a quick ratio of 2.41. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a 1 year low of $25.52 and a 1 year high of $49.25. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $29.91 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $36.48.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.46 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.01. Veeco Instruments had a return on equity of 10.92% and a net margin of 11.34%. The company had revenue of $184.80 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $180.57 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.41 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 1.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.