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

Key Points

• Veeco Instruments Inc. has received a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" from analysts, with five out of seven firms recommending a buy.
• The company's stock price has been rated with a 12-month price target of $30.43, despite recent downgrades from firms like Goldman Sachs and Barclays.
• Veeco reported quarterly earnings of $0.37 per share, exceeding estimates, but faced a year-over-year revenue decline of 4.1%.

Shares of Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO - Get Free Report) have been given an average rating of "Moderate Buy" by the seven ratings firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and five have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $30.43.

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on shares of Veeco Instruments from $27.00 to $20.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 9th. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments from $22.00 to $21.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 8th.

Veeco Instruments Stock Up 1.1%

Veeco Instruments stock opened at $20.82 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $1.25 billion, a PE ratio of 19.46 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 4.44 and a quick ratio of 3.02. The stock's fifty day moving average is $20.56 and its two-hundred day moving average is $21.53. Veeco Instruments has a 1-year low of $16.92 and a 1-year high of $41.64.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The semiconductor company reported $0.37 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $167.29 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $166.00 million. Veeco Instruments had a return on equity of 8.29% and a net margin of 8.99%. The business's quarterly revenue was down 4.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.45 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Veeco Instruments will post 0.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Veeco Instruments news, SVP Adrian Devasahayam sold 11,010 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.50, for a total transaction of $225,705.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 89,254 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,829,707. This trade represents a 10.98% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 2.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Veeco Instruments

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in VECO. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS acquired a new position in shares of Veeco Instruments in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $324,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Veeco Instruments by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,477,260 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $200,391,000 after buying an additional 110,825 shares during the last quarter. Pitcairn Co. increased its stake in Veeco Instruments by 12.1% in the 4th quarter. Pitcairn Co. now owns 13,444 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $360,000 after buying an additional 1,451 shares during the period. Riverwater Partners LLC raised its position in Veeco Instruments by 35.3% during the 4th quarter. Riverwater Partners LLC now owns 91,722 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $2,458,000 after buying an additional 23,913 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company MN lifted its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 29.1% in the 4th quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 221,912 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $5,947,000 after acquiring an additional 50,045 shares during the period. 98.46% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.

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