Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) Receives $42.14 Average Price Target from Analysts

Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the seven research firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $42.14.

VECO has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on Veeco Instruments from $35.00 to $30.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Benchmark dropped their target price on shares of Veeco Instruments from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. StockNews.com raised Veeco Instruments from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Oppenheimer cut their target price 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.

Veeco Instruments Stock Down 0.2 %

Veeco Instruments stock opened at $27.68 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.50 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $29.05 and a 200-day simple moving average of $35.56. Veeco Instruments has a one year low of $25.52 and a one year high of $49.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 2.41 and a current ratio of 3.54.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.46 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $184.80 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 in the previous year, the business earned $0.41 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Veeco Instruments will post 1.12 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.63, for a total transaction of $81,575.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 82,642 shares in the company, valued at $2,696,608.46. The trade was a 2.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 2.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Veeco Instruments

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 39.4% in the 2nd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 8,602 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $402,000 after purchasing an additional 2,433 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 5.6% in the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 598,014 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $27,933,000 after acquiring an additional 31,482 shares during the last quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System increased its stake in Veeco Instruments by 2.2% in the second quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 28,500 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,331,000 after purchasing an additional 600 shares in the last quarter. Calamos Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Veeco Instruments in the 2nd quarter valued at $1,145,000. Finally, EFG Asset Management North America Corp. increased its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments by 0.5% in the second quarter. EFG Asset Management North America Corp. now owns 67,588 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $3,156,000 after acquiring an additional 319 shares in the last quarter. 98.46% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.