Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) Upgraded by StockNews.com to Hold Rating

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Monday morning.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Benchmark reduced their price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $55.00 price target on shares of Veeco Instruments in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Citigroup cut Veeco Instruments from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $45.00 to $50.00 in a report on Monday, July 15th. Northland Securities dropped their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $53.00 to $47.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Oppenheimer decreased their target price 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. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $42.14.

Veeco Instruments Stock Up 0.0 %

Shares of VECO opened at $27.31 on Monday. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $1.55 billion, a PE ratio of 20.23 and a beta of 1.17. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $30.67 and its 200-day moving average is $37.24. Veeco Instruments has a 12 month low of $27.04 and a 12 month high of $49.25.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.46 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.01. The firm 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%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.41 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Veeco Instruments will post 1.2 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.67, for a total value of $71,675.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 80,142 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,297,671.14. This represents a 3.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders sold a total of 7,500 shares of company stock valued at $225,850 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 2.40% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Veeco Instruments

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in VECO. EFG Asset Management North America Corp. lifted its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments by 0.5% during the second quarter. EFG Asset Management North America Corp. now owns 67,588 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $3,156,000 after purchasing an additional 319 shares during the period. Mark Sheptoff Financial Planning LLC raised its position in Veeco Instruments by 1.9% during the 1st quarter. Mark Sheptoff Financial Planning LLC now owns 21,350 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $751,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE lifted its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 14.8% during the 3rd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 3,864 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $128,000 after buying an additional 498 shares during the period. Pitcairn Co. grew its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 3.1% in the 1st quarter. Pitcairn Co. now owns 18,675 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $657,000 after buying an additional 559 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Louisiana State Employees Retirement System increased its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 2.2% in the second quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 28,500 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,331,000 after buying an additional 600 shares during the period. 98.46% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.