Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) Given Consensus Rating of "Moderate Buy" by Analysts

Key Points

• Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) has received an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from analysts, with a price target of $27.33.
• CEO William John Miller sold 25,000 shares for $625,000, resulting in a 5.04% reduction of his holdings in the company.
• Hedge funds increased their positions in Veeco by significant amounts, with Millennium Management's holdings rising by 203.0% in the last quarter.

Shares of Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO - Get Free Report) have been assigned an average recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from the six analysts that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $27.3333.

VECO has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Benchmark dropped their price target on Veeco Instruments from $31.00 to $28.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 7th.

Insider Activity

In other Veeco Instruments news, SVP Adrian Devasahayam sold 4,046 shares of Veeco Instruments stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.00, for a total transaction of $105,196.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 86,134 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,239,484. The trade was a 4.49% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO William John Miller sold 25,000 shares of Veeco Instruments stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.00, for a total value of $625,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 470,671 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $11,766,775. This trade represents a 5.04% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 2.40% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Amalgamated Bank increased its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments by 3.2% in the second quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 16,926 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $344,000 after buying an additional 531 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments by 6.1% in the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 9,391 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $252,000 after buying an additional 538 shares during the period. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System increased its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments by 3.3% in the second quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System now owns 17,614 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $358,000 after buying an additional 569 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments by 9.9% in the second quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 6,421 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $130,000 after buying an additional 580 shares during the period. Finally, Andra AP fonden increased its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 1.4% during the 2nd quarter. Andra AP fonden now owns 55,039 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $1,118,000 after purchasing an additional 744 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.46% of the company's stock.

Veeco Instruments Price Performance

NASDAQ:VECO traded up $1.25 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $28.40. 903,792 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 917,086. The firm has a market cap of $1.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.84 and a beta of 1.23. Veeco Instruments has a 52 week low of $16.92 and a 52 week high of $34.34. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $23.29 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $21.21. The company has a quick ratio of 3.43, a current ratio of 5.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.22 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $166.10 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $151.31 million. Veeco Instruments had a return on equity of 7.38% and a net margin of 8.65%.The firm's quarterly revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.42 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Veeco Instruments will post 0.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.