Westfield Capital Management Co. LP Purchases 319,451 Shares of Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO)

Westfield Capital Management Co. LP grew its position in shares of Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) by 37.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,175,759 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after acquiring an additional 319,451 shares during the quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP’s holdings in Veeco Instruments were worth $38,953,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Signaturefd LLC grew its position in Veeco Instruments by 130.6% in the 3rd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,328 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $44,000 after purchasing an additional 752 shares during the period. KBC Group NV lifted its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 46.8% in the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,088 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $69,000 after buying an additional 666 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments by 237.4% during the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,677 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $78,000 after buying an additional 1,180 shares during the last quarter. nVerses Capital LLC increased its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 733.3% during the second quarter. nVerses Capital LLC now owns 2,500 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $117,000 after acquiring an additional 2,200 shares in the last quarter. Finally, US Bancorp DE raised its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments by 14.8% in the 3rd 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. Institutional investors own 98.46% of the company’s stock.

Veeco Instruments Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ VECO opened at $27.40 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 3.54, a quick ratio of 2.41 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $30.25 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $36.83. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a 1-year low of $25.52 and a 1-year high of $49.25. The firm has a market cap of $1.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.30 and a beta of 1.17.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.46 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $184.80 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $180.57 million. Veeco Instruments had a return on equity of 10.92% and a net margin of 11.34%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.41 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 1.12 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 dated Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.04, for a total value of $72,600.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 85,142 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,472,523.68. This represents a 2.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders have sold 7,500 shares of company stock valued at $225,850 in the last 90 days. 2.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have issued reports on VECO. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target 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. Northland Securities cut their price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments from $53.00 to $47.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Oppenheimer dropped their price target on shares of Veeco Instruments from $45.00 to $40.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $55.00 target price on shares of Veeco Instruments in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Veeco Instruments from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Veeco Instruments presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $42.14.

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.