Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Shares of Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) have earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the seven analysts that are covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $45.57.

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $42.00 price target on shares of Veeco Instruments in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $55.00 target price on shares of Veeco Instruments in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on shares of Veeco Instruments from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments from $39.00 to $35.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, Northland Securities cut their price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments from $53.00 to $47.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other 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 directly owns 85,142 shares in the company, valued at $2,472,523.68. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 2.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in VECO. Signaturefd LLC increased its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 130.6% during the 3rd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,328 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 752 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in Veeco Instruments by 237.4% during the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,677 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $78,000 after buying an additional 1,180 shares during the last quarter. Montag A & Associates Inc. bought a new stake in Veeco Instruments in the first quarter valued at approximately $99,000. nVerses Capital LLC raised its stake in Veeco Instruments by 733.3% in the second quarter. nVerses Capital LLC now owns 2,500 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $117,000 after buying an additional 2,200 shares during the period. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 3,213.1% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,804 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $145,000 after buying an additional 4,659 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.46% of the company’s stock.

Veeco Instruments Stock Down 1.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ VECO opened at $29.23 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $33.05 and a 200 day moving average price of $38.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 2.32 and a current ratio of 3.52. The stock has a market cap of $1.66 billion, a P/E ratio of -64.96 and a beta of 1.16. Veeco Instruments has a 52-week low of $23.63 and a 52-week high of $49.25.

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