Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) CEO Sells $800,000.00 in Stock

Key Points

• Veeco Instruments CEO William John Miller sold 25,000 shares at an average price of $32.00, totaling $800,000.00, which represents a 4.63% decrease in his ownership stake.
• The company's share price dropped to $31.61 in recent trading, while experiencing a 1-year high of $34.45 and a low of $16.92.
• Veeco Instruments reported a quarterly earnings per share (EPS) of $0.36, exceeding expectations and marking a 5.6% year-over-year revenue decline.

Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO - Get Free Report) CEO William John Miller sold 25,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.00, for a total transaction of $800,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 514,543 shares in the company, valued at $16,465,376. This represents a 4.63% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

William John Miller also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Tuesday, September 9th, William John Miller sold 25,000 shares of Veeco Instruments stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.00, for a total transaction of $625,000.00.

Veeco Instruments Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ VECO traded down $1.49 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $31.61. 1,127,821 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 797,167. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 3.43 and a current ratio of 5.10. The company has a market cap of $1.90 billion, a PE ratio of 30.99 and a beta of 1.27. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $25.15 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $21.83. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a 1-year low of $16.92 and a 1-year high of $34.45.

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Veeco Instruments

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Wasatch Advisors LP raised its stake in Veeco Instruments by 4.9% during the second quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 3,396,804 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $69,023,000 after buying an additional 157,978 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its stake in Veeco Instruments by 9.7% during the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 3,215,031 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $65,329,000 after buying an additional 284,716 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its stake in Veeco Instruments by 6.6% during the first quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 2,930,315 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $58,841,000 after buying an additional 182,143 shares during the last quarter. Paradigm Capital Management Inc. NY raised its stake in Veeco Instruments by 1.3% during the second quarter. Paradigm Capital Management Inc. NY now owns 2,410,000 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $48,971,000 after buying an additional 30,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Veeco Instruments by 4.7% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,433,171 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $29,125,000 after buying an additional 64,729 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.46% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have weighed in on VECO. Weiss Ratings restated a "hold (c)" rating on shares of Veeco Instruments in a research report on Saturday, September 27th. Needham & Company LLC restated a "hold" rating on shares of Veeco Instruments in a research report on Friday. Finally, Benchmark cut their target price on shares of Veeco Instruments from $31.00 to $28.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Veeco Instruments presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $27.33.

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.

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