Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) Shares Gap Up – What’s Next?

Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO)’s stock price gapped up before the market opened on Monday . The stock had previously closed at $27.16, but opened at $28.55. Veeco Instruments shares last traded at $28.66, with a volume of 72,678 shares trading hands.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

VECO has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Benchmark reduced 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 note on Thursday, November 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced 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 note on Thursday, November 7th. Oppenheimer cut their price target on shares of Veeco Instruments from $45.00 to $40.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Citigroup raised shares of Veeco Instruments from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $33.00 price target for the company in a research note on Monday. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Veeco Instruments from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Veeco Instruments currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $39.71.

Veeco Instruments Trading Up 7.5 %

The stock has a market capitalization of $1.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.64 and a beta of 1.15. 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’s fifty day moving average price is $27.91 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $33.80.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $184.80 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $180.57 million. Veeco Instruments had a net margin of 11.34% and a return on equity of 10.92%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.41 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 1.12 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Veeco Instruments

In other 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 value of $71,675.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 80,142 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,297,671.14. This represents a 3.03 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 2.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Veeco Instruments

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Great Lakes Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Veeco Instruments in the 2nd quarter worth about $4,219,000. Driehaus Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 119.3% in the 2nd quarter. Driehaus Capital Management LLC now owns 1,458,288 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $68,117,000 after buying an additional 793,429 shares during the period. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC grew its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 165.0% in the 3rd quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC now owns 370,917 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $12,288,000 after buying an additional 230,971 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,337,321 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $44,314,000 after buying an additional 22,850 shares during the period. Finally, Sei Investments Co. grew its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 57.2% in the 2nd quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 75,551 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $3,529,000 after buying an additional 27,476 shares during the period. 98.46% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.