Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) Shares Gap Up – What’s Next?

Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO)’s stock price gapped up before the market opened on Monday . The stock had previously closed at $27.16, but opened at $28.55. Veeco Instruments shares last traded at $28.66, with a volume of 72,678 shares trading hands.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on VECO. Oppenheimer decreased their price target on Veeco Instruments from $45.00 to $40.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Benchmark cut their price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Citigroup upgraded Veeco Instruments from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $33.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday. StockNews.com upgraded Veeco Instruments from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $35.00 to $30.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Veeco Instruments has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $39.71.

Veeco Instruments Trading Down 1.6 %

The company has a current ratio of 3.54, a quick ratio of 2.41 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The company has a market cap of $1.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.85 and a beta of 1.15. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $27.87 and a 200 day moving average price of $33.54.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.63, for a total transaction of $81,575.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 82,642 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,696,608.46. The trade was a 2.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 2.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Veeco Instruments

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in VECO. Signaturefd LLC increased its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 130.6% during the third quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,328 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $44,000 after acquiring an additional 752 shares during the period. 272 Capital LP bought a new position in Veeco Instruments during the 3rd quarter valued at $50,000. KBC Group NV increased its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 46.8% during the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,088 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $69,000 after purchasing an additional 666 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 116.2% in the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,626 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $120,000 after buying an additional 1,949 shares in the last quarter. Finally, US Bancorp DE lifted its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments by 14.8% in the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 3,864 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $128,000 after buying an additional 498 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 98.46% of the company’s stock.

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.