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

Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 80,142 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,297,671.14. The trade was a 3.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink.

Veeco Instruments Trading Up 0.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ VECO opened at $27.31 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $30.67 and its 200-day moving average price is $37.24. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a 52-week low of $27.04 and a 52-week 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. The company has a market cap of $1.55 billion, a PE ratio of 20.23 and a beta of 1.17.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last issued 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 business had revenue of $184.80 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $180.57 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.41 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 1.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Veeco Instruments

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of VECO. Wasatch Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments by 50.3% during the third quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 2,640,649 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $87,485,000 after purchasing an additional 883,815 shares during the last quarter. Driehaus Capital Management LLC increased its position in Veeco Instruments by 119.3% during the second quarter. Driehaus Capital Management LLC now owns 1,458,288 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $68,117,000 after acquiring an additional 793,429 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 5.8% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,131,073 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $250,800,000 after acquiring an additional 391,346 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its position in Veeco Instruments by 20.1% in the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 2,216,351 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $73,428,000 after purchasing an additional 371,221 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Westfield Capital Management Co. LP grew its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 37.3% during the 3rd quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP now owns 1,175,759 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $38,953,000 after purchasing an additional 319,451 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.46% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on VECO. StockNews.com upgraded Veeco Instruments from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $55.00 target price on shares of Veeco Instruments in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Benchmark lowered their price target on shares of Veeco Instruments from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Oppenheimer cut their price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments from $45.00 to $40.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Northland Securities lowered their target price on shares of Veeco Instruments from $53.00 to $47.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $42.14.

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.