First Eagle Investment Management LLC Has $12.07 Million Position in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO)

First Eagle Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) by 16.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 450,298 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after purchasing an additional 62,300 shares during the quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC owned 0.79% of Veeco Instruments worth $12,068,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Veeco Instruments by 257.4% during the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,276 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 919 shares during the period. 272 Capital LP acquired a new stake in Veeco Instruments during the 3rd quarter valued at $50,000. KBC Group NV raised its stake in Veeco Instruments by 46.8% during the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,088 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $69,000 after purchasing an additional 666 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE raised its stake in Veeco Instruments by 14.8% during the 3rd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 3,864 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $128,000 after purchasing an additional 498 shares during the period. Finally, Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. raised its stake in Veeco Instruments by 721.7% during the 3rd quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. now owns 5,341 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $177,000 after purchasing an additional 4,691 shares during the period. 98.46% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Veeco Instruments Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ:VECO opened at $21.48 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.24 billion, a PE ratio of 17.32 and a beta of 1.24. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a 1 year low of $20.05 and a 1 year high of $49.25. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $24.58 and a 200 day moving average price of $27.96. The company has a current ratio of 3.98, a quick ratio of 2.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The semiconductor company reported $0.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40 by ($0.14). Veeco Instruments had a return on equity of 9.38% and a net margin of 10.28%. Analysts expect that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 0.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Veeco Instruments news, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.51, for a total transaction of $61,275.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 72,642 shares in the company, valued at $1,780,455.42. This represents a 3.33 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 2.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VECO has been the topic of a number of research reports. Needham & Company LLC dropped their price target on shares of Veeco Instruments from $35.00 to $29.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Benchmark dropped their price target on shares of Veeco Instruments from $38.00 to $31.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Veeco Instruments from $30.00 to $25.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. StockNews.com raised shares of Veeco Instruments from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $35.00 price target (down from $40.00) on shares of Veeco Instruments in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Veeco Instruments has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $32.43.

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.