Insider Selling: Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) CFO Sells 2,500 Shares of Stock

Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.63, for a total value of $81,575.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 82,642 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,696,608.46. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

Veeco Instruments Stock Up 1.8 %

VECO stock traded up $0.60 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $33.33. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 307,865 shares, compared to its average volume of 665,149. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $33.73 and a 200-day simple moving average of $38.17. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.57 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a quick ratio of 2.32, a current ratio of 3.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a 52-week low of $23.63 and a 52-week high of $49.25.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.43 by ($0.01). Veeco Instruments had a net margin of 11.83% and a return on equity of 12.03%. The company had revenue of $175.88 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $176.03 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.21 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 8.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 1.2 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Veeco Instruments

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in VECO. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Veeco Instruments by 5.8% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,131,073 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $250,800,000 after acquiring an additional 391,346 shares during the last quarter. Driehaus Capital Management LLC raised its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 793,429 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 5.6% during the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 598,014 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $27,933,000 after purchasing an additional 31,482 shares during the last quarter. Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 4.5% during the first quarter. Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC now owns 384,310 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $13,516,000 after purchasing an additional 16,557 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Blue Grotto Capital LLC purchased a new position in Veeco Instruments in the fourth quarter valued at $11,476,000. 98.46% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have commented on VECO shares. Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $42.00 target price on shares of Veeco Instruments in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments from $39.00 to $35.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Citigroup downgraded shares of Veeco Instruments from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $45.00 to $50.00 in a report on Monday, July 15th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $55.00 price target on shares of Veeco Instruments in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Veeco Instruments from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Veeco Instruments presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $45.57.

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.