Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) Trading 6.1% Higher on Analyst Upgrade

Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO)’s stock price traded up 6.1% on Wednesday after Barclays raised their price target on the stock from $33.00 to $35.00. Barclays currently has an equal weight rating on the stock. Veeco Instruments traded as high as $40.30 and last traded at $39.78. 281,589 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 46% from the average session volume of 519,968 shares. The stock had previously closed at $37.49.

VECO has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Benchmark increased their price target on Veeco Instruments from $34.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Needham & Company LLC raised their price target on shares of Veeco Instruments from $43.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments from $36.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased 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. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Veeco Instruments presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $38.43.

Insider Activity at Veeco Instruments

In other news, CEO William John Miller sold 24,201 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.30, for a total transaction of $854,295.30. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 545,091 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,241,712.30. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, SVP Adrian Devasahayam sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.10, for a total value of $170,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 67,278 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,294,179.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO William John Miller sold 24,201 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.30, for a total value of $854,295.30. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 545,091 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,241,712.30. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 2.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Ulland Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Veeco Instruments during the 1st quarter worth $33,000. NBC Securities Inc. acquired a new stake in Veeco Instruments in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Federated Hermes Inc. acquired a new stake in Veeco Instruments in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Covestor Ltd grew its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 1,311.0% in the 3rd quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,284 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 1,193 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Montag A & Associates Inc. acquired a new stake in Veeco Instruments in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $99,000. 98.46% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Veeco Instruments Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $2.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -60.45 and a beta of 1.18. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $35.34 and a 200-day simple moving average of $31.91. The company has a current ratio of 3.24, a quick ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41.

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

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.