GAMMA Investing LLC Sells 1,636 Shares of Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO)

GAMMA Investing LLC cut its position in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) by 45.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,990 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 1,636 shares during the quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC’s holdings in Veeco Instruments were worth $53,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Signaturefd LLC raised its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 130.6% during the third quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,328 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $44,000 after acquiring an additional 752 shares during the last quarter. 272 Capital LP bought a new position in shares of Veeco Instruments during the third quarter worth about $50,000. KBC Group NV raised its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 46.8% during the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,088 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $69,000 after acquiring an additional 666 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE raised its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 14.8% during the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 3,864 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $128,000 after acquiring an additional 498 shares during the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 3,213.1% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,804 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $145,000 after acquiring an additional 4,659 shares during the last quarter. 98.46% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on VECO shares. Oppenheimer lowered their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $45.00 to $40.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Citigroup raised Veeco Instruments from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $33.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on Veeco Instruments from $35.00 to $30.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. StockNews.com raised Veeco Instruments from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Benchmark decreased their target price on Veeco Instruments from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $39.71.

Veeco Instruments Trading Down 2.1 %

Shares of Veeco Instruments stock opened at $26.13 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 2.41 and a current ratio of 3.54. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a 52 week low of $25.52 and a 52 week high of $49.25. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $27.72 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $33.02. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.48 billion, a PE ratio of 19.36 and a beta of 1.15.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.46 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $184.80 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $180.57 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.41 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 1.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Veeco Instruments

In related news, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of Veeco Instruments stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.63, for a total transaction of $69,075.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 75,142 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,076,173.46. The trade was a 3.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders own 2.40% of the company’s stock.

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.