Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) Receives $32.43 Consensus Price Target from Brokerages

Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the seven brokerages that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and five have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $32.43.

VECO has been the subject of several recent research reports. Citigroup decreased their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $33.00 to $30.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments from $30.00 to $25.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Benchmark lowered their target price on shares of Veeco Instruments from $38.00 to $31.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Needham & Company LLC cut their price target on Veeco Instruments from $35.00 to $29.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $35.00 price objective (down from $40.00) on shares of Veeco Instruments in a research note on Friday, February 7th.

Veeco Instruments Stock Performance

NASDAQ:VECO opened at $17.95 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.48 and a beta of 1.12. Veeco Instruments has a twelve month low of $16.92 and a twelve month high of $49.25. The company has a fifty day moving average of $21.15 and a 200-day moving average of $25.64. The company has a quick ratio of 2.69, a current ratio of 3.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The semiconductor company reported $0.26 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.40 by ($0.14). Veeco Instruments had a net margin of 10.28% and a return on equity of 9.38%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Veeco Instruments will post 0.76 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of Veeco Instruments stock in a transaction on Monday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.51, for a total transaction of $61,275.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 72,642 shares in the company, valued at $1,780,455.42. The trade was a 3.33 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 2.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in Veeco Instruments by 12.3% in the first quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 223,733 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $4,493,000 after purchasing an additional 24,577 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 342.6% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 8,807 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $177,000 after acquiring an additional 6,817 shares during the period. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 10,288.7% in the 1st quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 13,817 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $277,000 after acquiring an additional 13,684 shares during the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers raised its stake in Veeco Instruments by 8.3% in the 1st quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 176,679 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $3,548,000 after acquiring an additional 13,613 shares during the period. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 396.2% during the first quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,295 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 1,034 shares during the last quarter. 98.46% of the stock is currently 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.