Brokerages Set Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) Target Price at $36.57

Shares of Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) have been given an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the six analysts that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $36.57.

VECO has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Veeco Instruments from $28.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 16th. Benchmark raised their target price on shares of Veeco Instruments from $34.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Veeco Instruments from $36.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Veeco Instruments from $31.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th.

Veeco Instruments Price Performance

Shares of Veeco Instruments stock opened at $36.99 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $2.08 billion, a PE ratio of -56.91 and a beta of 1.20. Veeco Instruments has a 12-month low of $17.70 and a 12-month high of $37.75. The company has a quick ratio of 2.15, a current ratio of 3.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $34.73 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $30.72.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The semiconductor company reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $173.92 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $170.00 million. Veeco Instruments had a negative net margin of 4.56% and a positive return on equity of 11.10%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Veeco Instruments will post 1.39 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Veeco Instruments

In other Veeco Instruments news, CEO William John Miller sold 30,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.07, for a total transaction of $902,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 500,152 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,039,570.64. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CEO William John Miller sold 30,000 shares of Veeco Instruments stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.07, for a total value of $902,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 500,152 shares in the company, valued at $15,039,570.64. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Adrian Devasahayam sold 5,000 shares of Veeco Instruments stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.10, for a total transaction of $170,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 67,278 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,294,179.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 59,201 shares of company stock worth $1,926,895. 2.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Veeco Instruments

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in VECO. BlackRock Inc. increased its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 0.5% during the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 8,281,459 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $212,668,000 after buying an additional 42,742 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,739,727 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $209,134,000 after purchasing an additional 49,606 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 22.6% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,364,379 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $145,858,000 after purchasing an additional 988,143 shares in the last quarter. Wasatch Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 28.7% in the first quarter. Wasatch Advisors Inc. now owns 3,221,333 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $87,588,000 after purchasing an additional 718,458 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wasatch Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 2,645,701 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $82,096,000 after purchasing an additional 53,715 shares in the last quarter. 98.46% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Veeco Instruments Company Profile

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.