Brokerages Set Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) Price Target at $42.14

Shares of Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) have earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the seven brokerages that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $42.14.

Several analysts recently issued reports on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on Veeco Instruments from $35.00 to $30.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, November 7th. StockNews.com raised Veeco Instruments from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Benchmark decreased their target price on Veeco Instruments from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Oppenheimer reduced their price target on Veeco Instruments from $45.00 to $40.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $55.00 price target on shares of Veeco Instruments in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Veeco Instruments

In other Veeco Instruments news, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.04, for a total value of $72,600.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 85,142 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,472,523.68. This trade represents a 2.85 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 7,500 shares of company stock valued at $225,850. 2.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake 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 last quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 50.3% in the 3rd quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 2,640,649 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $87,485,000 after acquiring an additional 883,815 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 20.1% in the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 2,216,351 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $73,428,000 after acquiring an additional 371,221 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,091,995 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $69,308,000 after acquiring an additional 30,008 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Driehaus Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 119.3% in the 2nd quarter. Driehaus Capital Management LLC now owns 1,458,288 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $68,117,000 after acquiring an additional 793,429 shares during the last quarter. 98.46% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Veeco Instruments Stock Up 0.6 %

VECO stock opened at $26.15 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 3.54 and a quick ratio of 2.41. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.37 and a beta of 1.17. The business has a 50-day moving average of $30.40 and a 200-day moving average of $36.99. Veeco Instruments has a fifty-two week low of $25.52 and a fifty-two week high of $49.25.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.46 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $184.80 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $180.57 million. Veeco Instruments had a return on equity of 10.92% and a net margin of 11.34%. Veeco Instruments’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.41 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Veeco Instruments will post 1.12 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.