Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

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

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

Insider Activity at Veeco Instruments

In other news, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.63, for a total transaction of $69,075.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 75,142 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,076,173.46. The trade was a 3.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 2.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 257.4% during the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,276 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 919 shares during the last quarter. 272 Capital LP purchased a new stake in Veeco Instruments during the 3rd quarter worth about $50,000. KBC Group NV lifted its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 46.8% during the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,088 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $69,000 after buying an additional 666 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments by 721.7% in the 3rd quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. now owns 5,341 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $177,000 after acquiring an additional 4,691 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sciencast Management LP purchased a new position in shares of Veeco Instruments in the 4th quarter valued at about $204,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.46% of the company’s stock.

Veeco Instruments Stock Performance

NASDAQ:VECO opened at $20.38 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 3.98, a quick ratio of 2.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $23.38 and its 200-day moving average price is $27.14. The company has a market cap of $1.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.44 and a beta of 1.24. Veeco Instruments has a twelve month low of $19.96 and a twelve month high of $49.25.

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