Brevan Howard Capital Management LP Takes Position in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO)

Brevan Howard Capital Management LP purchased a new position in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 17,723 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $475,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in VECO. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Veeco Instruments by 257.4% in the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,276 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 919 shares during the last quarter. Sciencast Management LP acquired a new stake in Veeco Instruments in the fourth quarter worth about $204,000. Inceptionr LLC bought a new position in shares of Veeco Instruments in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $263,000. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC boosted its stake in Veeco Instruments by 54.9% during the 4th quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 10,009 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $268,000 after purchasing an additional 3,548 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Avior Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Veeco Instruments by 21.0% during the fourth quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,589 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $284,000 after buying an additional 1,835 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.46% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Veeco Instruments

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

Veeco Instruments Stock Down 3.5 %

Veeco Instruments stock opened at $19.20 on Friday. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a twelve month low of $16.92 and a twelve month high of $49.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 2.69 and a current ratio of 3.98. The firm has a market cap of $1.11 billion, a PE ratio of 15.48 and a beta of 1.13. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $19.73 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $24.34.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The semiconductor company reported $0.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.32 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $167.29 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $166.00 million. Veeco Instruments had a return on equity of 9.38% and a net margin of 10.28%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.45 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 0.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently commented on VECO. Benchmark dropped their target price on shares of Veeco Instruments from $38.00 to $31.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Needham & Company LLC reduced their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $35.00 to $29.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Barclays cut their target price on Veeco Instruments from $22.00 to $21.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price target on Veeco Instruments from $27.00 to $20.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Veeco Instruments from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $30.43.

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.