Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) have been given an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the seven ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $39.71.

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on VECO shares. Oppenheimer dropped their price objective on 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 objective on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 6th. StockNews.com raised shares of Veeco Instruments from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Benchmark reduced their price target 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. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments from $35.00 to $30.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 7th.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.67, for a total transaction of $71,675.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 80,142 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,297,671.14. This trade represents a 3.03 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 2.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Veeco Instruments

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Great Lakes Advisors LLC bought a new position in Veeco Instruments in the second quarter valued at about $4,219,000. Driehaus Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 119.3% in the second 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 lifted its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 165.0% during the 3rd quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC now owns 370,917 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $12,288,000 after buying an additional 230,971 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 1.7% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,337,321 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $44,314,000 after purchasing an additional 22,850 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sei Investments Co. grew its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 57.2% during the second quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 75,551 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $3,529,000 after purchasing an additional 27,476 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.46% of the company’s stock.

Veeco Instruments Stock Performance

NASDAQ:VECO opened at $26.69 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.77 and a beta of 1.15. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $27.78 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $33.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 3.54 and a quick ratio of 2.41. Veeco Instruments has a 1 year low of $25.52 and a 1 year high of $49.25.

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

About Veeco Instruments

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.