Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) Trading Down 2.9% – Should You Sell?

Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO)’s share price fell 2.9% during trading on Wednesday . The company traded as low as $30.47 and last traded at $30.56. 295,730 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 55% from the average session volume of 660,942 shares. The stock had previously closed at $31.48.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on VECO. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $55.00 target price on shares of Veeco Instruments in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on Veeco Instruments from $39.00 to $35.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Citigroup cut Veeco Instruments from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the company from $45.00 to $50.00 in a report on Monday, July 15th. Northland Securities cut their price target on Veeco Instruments from $53.00 to $47.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Oppenheimer upped their target price on Veeco Instruments from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, June 27th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $45.57.

Veeco Instruments Stock Down 0.3 %

The business has a 50-day moving average price of $33.45 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $38.07. The company has a quick ratio of 2.32, a current ratio of 3.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. The firm has a market cap of $1.73 billion, a PE ratio of -68.16 and a beta of 1.16.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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). Veeco Instruments had a return on equity of 12.03% and a net margin of 11.83%. The company had revenue of $175.88 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $176.03 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.21 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 8.8% 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 year.

Insider Transactions at Veeco Instruments

In other news, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.63, for a total transaction of $81,575.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 82,642 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,696,608.46. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 2.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased 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 valued at $250,800,000 after acquiring an additional 391,346 shares during the period. Driehaus Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of 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 worth $68,117,000 after buying an additional 793,429 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in Veeco Instruments by 5.6% during the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 598,014 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $27,933,000 after acquiring an additional 31,482 shares during the last quarter. Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 4.5% in the 1st quarter. Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC now owns 384,310 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $13,516,000 after purchasing an additional 16,557 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Eagle Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments by 11.2% in the second quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 325,698 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $15,213,000 after purchasing an additional 32,850 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.