Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC Has $387,000 Holdings in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO)

Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC lowered its stake in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) by 24.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 14,441 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 4,656 shares during the period. Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Veeco Instruments were worth $387,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in VECO. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 257.4% in the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,276 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 919 shares during the last quarter. 272 Capital LP acquired a new stake in shares of Veeco Instruments in the third quarter worth about $50,000. KBC Group NV lifted its position 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 worth $69,000 after buying an additional 666 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE lifted its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 14.8% in the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 3,864 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $128,000 after buying an additional 498 shares during the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 3,213.1% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,804 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $145,000 after purchasing an additional 4,659 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.46% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.51, for a total value of $61,275.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 72,642 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,780,455.42. This represents a 3.33 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 2.40% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Barclays dropped their price objective on 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 upgraded Veeco Instruments from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday. Benchmark dropped their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $38.00 to $31.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $35.00 price objective (down from $40.00) on shares of Veeco Instruments in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC dropped their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $35.00 to $29.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Veeco Instruments has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $32.43.

Veeco Instruments Trading Down 4.5 %

Shares of VECO opened at $21.23 on Tuesday. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a 12-month low of $20.12 and a 12-month high of $49.25. The company has a quick ratio of 2.69, a current ratio of 3.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.12 and a beta of 1.13. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $25.69 and its 200 day moving average price is $28.87.

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

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.