Synovus Financial Corp Buys New Stake in Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO)

Synovus Financial Corp bought a new stake in shares of Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 19,117 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $633,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Signaturefd LLC lifted its position in Veeco Instruments by 130.6% during the third 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 position in Veeco Instruments by 46.8% during the third 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. nVerses Capital LLC lifted its position in Veeco Instruments by 733.3% during the second quarter. nVerses Capital LLC now owns 2,500 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $117,000 after purchasing an additional 2,200 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in Veeco Instruments by 116.2% during the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,626 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $120,000 after purchasing an additional 1,949 shares during the period. Finally, US Bancorp DE lifted its position in Veeco Instruments by 14.8% during the third 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. 98.46% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Veeco Instruments

In related news, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.67, for a total transaction of $71,675.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 80,142 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,297,671.14. This represents a 3.03 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 2.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have weighed in on VECO shares. Oppenheimer decreased their price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments from $45.00 to $40.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Benchmark decreased their price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments from $35.00 to $30.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Veeco Instruments from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Veeco Instruments has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $42.14.

Veeco Instruments Stock Up 0.2 %

VECO stock opened at $28.01 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.75 and a beta of 1.15. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $28.87 and a 200-day simple moving average of $35.38. The company has a quick ratio of 2.41, a current ratio of 3.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a 52 week low of $25.52 and a 52 week high of $49.25.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.46 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $184.80 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $180.57 million. Veeco Instruments had a net margin of 11.34% and a return on equity of 10.92%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.41 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 1.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.