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

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a report released on Thursday morning.

VECO has been the subject of several other research reports. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $55.00 target price on shares of Veeco Instruments in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $42.00 price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Northland Securities cut their target price on shares of Veeco Instruments from $53.00 to $47.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Citigroup lowered shares of Veeco Instruments from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $45.00 to $50.00 in a research report on Monday, July 15th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on Veeco Instruments from $39.00 to $35.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $45.57.

Veeco Instruments Stock Up 0.0 %

VECO stock opened at $28.79 on Thursday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $31.72 and its two-hundred day moving average is $37.60. The company has a market capitalization of $1.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.42 and a beta of 1.17. Veeco Instruments has a 52 week low of $24.33 and a 52 week high of $49.25. The company has a current ratio of 3.52, a quick ratio of 2.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Veeco Instruments news, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of Veeco Instruments stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 10th. The stock was 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. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 2.40% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Veeco Instruments

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of VECO. First Eagle Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 11.4% in the first quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 292,848 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $10,299,000 after buying an additional 30,000 shares during the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC lifted its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 280.7% in the 1st quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 38,949 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,370,000 after purchasing an additional 28,719 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 5.6% in the second 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 in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Veeco Instruments by 5.8% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,131,073 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $250,800,000 after buying an additional 391,346 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sei Investments Co. lifted its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 130.7% in the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 48,075 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,691,000 after buying an additional 27,234 shares during the last quarter. 98.46% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other 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.