Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the seven research firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $45.57.

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on VECO. StockNews.com downgraded Veeco Instruments from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and set a $42.00 price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $55.00 price target on shares of Veeco Instruments in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 27th. Finally, Citigroup cut shares of Veeco Instruments from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $45.00 to $50.00 in a research note on Monday, July 15th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Veeco Instruments

In other Veeco Instruments news, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.04, for a total transaction of $72,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 85,142 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,472,523.68. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 2.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Veeco Instruments

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 237.4% during the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,677 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $78,000 after acquiring an additional 1,180 shares during the last quarter. 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 last quarter. Montag A & Associates Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Veeco Instruments in the 1st quarter worth $99,000. Ausbil Investment Management Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Veeco Instruments in the 2nd quarter worth about $200,000. Finally, NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Veeco Instruments during the 2nd quarter valued at about $210,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.46% of the company’s stock.

Veeco Instruments Stock Down 0.5 %

Veeco Instruments stock opened at $32.30 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $1.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -71.78 and a beta of 1.17. The company has a current ratio of 3.52, a quick ratio of 2.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. Veeco Instruments has a 12 month low of $23.63 and a 12 month high of $49.25. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $34.56 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $38.27.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.42 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $175.88 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $176.03 million. Veeco Instruments had a return on equity of 12.03% and a net margin of 11.83%. Veeco Instruments’s quarterly revenue was up 8.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.21 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Veeco Instruments will post 1.2 EPS 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.