Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) Upgraded to “Hold” at StockNews.com

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) was upgraded by analysts at StockNews.com from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report issued on Monday.

Several other analysts have also commented on VECO. Citigroup lowered shares of Veeco Instruments from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price target for the company from $45.00 to $50.00 in a research report on Monday, July 15th. Oppenheimer lowered their price target on shares of Veeco Instruments from $45.00 to $40.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Benchmark lowered their price target on shares of Veeco Instruments from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $55.00 target price on shares of Veeco Instruments in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on shares of Veeco Instruments from $35.00 to $30.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $42.14.

Veeco Instruments Price Performance

VECO traded down $0.56 on Monday, hitting $28.12. 725,338 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 661,865. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 2.32 and a current ratio of 3.54. The business’s fifty day moving average is $30.93 and its 200 day moving average is $37.43. Veeco Instruments has a fifty-two week low of $27.06 and a fifty-two week high of $49.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.83 and a beta of 1.17.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.46 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $184.80 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $180.57 million. Veeco Instruments had a net margin of 11.34% and a return on equity of 10.92%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.41 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Veeco Instruments will post 1.2 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Veeco Instruments news, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.63, for a total transaction of $81,575.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 82,642 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,696,608.46. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 2.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Veeco Instruments

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of VECO. Driehaus Capital Management LLC raised 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 period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised 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 period. New York State Common Retirement Fund raised its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 249.0% in the 3rd quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 430,757 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $14,271,000 after acquiring an additional 307,348 shares during the period. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC raised its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 165.0% in the 3rd quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC now owns 370,917 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $12,288,000 after acquiring an additional 230,971 shares during the period. Finally, Mesirow Institutional Investment Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Veeco Instruments in the 2nd quarter valued at $8,857,000. Hedge funds and other 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.