John P. Kiernan Sells 2,500 Shares of Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) Stock

Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of Veeco Instruments 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 in the company, valued at $2,297,671.14. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Veeco Instruments Price Performance

VECO stock opened at $27.30 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.41, a current ratio of 3.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The firm has a market cap of $1.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.22 and a beta of 1.17. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $30.76 and its 200 day simple moving average is $37.31. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a 12-month low of $27.04 and a 12-month high of $49.25.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.46 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.01. Veeco Instruments had a return on equity of 10.92% and a net margin of 11.34%. The company had revenue of $184.80 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $180.57 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.41 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 1.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on VECO shares. Oppenheimer dropped their price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments from $45.00 to $40.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $55.00 price target on shares of Veeco Instruments in a report on Wednesday, August 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 on the stock in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. StockNews.com raised Veeco Instruments from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Benchmark cut their target price on Veeco Instruments from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $42.14.

Institutional Trading of Veeco Instruments

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. First Eagle Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 11.4% in the 1st quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 292,848 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $10,299,000 after buying an additional 30,000 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC increased its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments by 280.7% during the first quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 38,949 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,370,000 after acquiring an additional 28,719 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 5.6% during the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 598,014 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $27,933,000 after purchasing an additional 31,482 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments by 5.8% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,131,073 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $250,800,000 after purchasing an additional 391,346 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sei Investments Co. grew its position in Veeco Instruments by 130.7% in the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 48,075 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,691,000 after purchasing an additional 27,234 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.46% of the company’s stock.

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.