Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) CFO Sells $72,600.00 in Stock

Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.04, for a total transaction of $72,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 85,142 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,472,523.68. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink.

Veeco Instruments Trading Up 4.0 %

Shares of Veeco Instruments stock opened at $31.25 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.77 billion, a P/E ratio of -69.44 and a beta of 1.17. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a 12-month low of $23.63 and a 12-month high of $49.25. The company has a quick ratio of 2.32, a current ratio of 3.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $37.86 and a 200 day simple moving average of $38.57.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.42 earnings per share 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 analyst estimates of $176.03 million. Veeco Instruments had a return on equity of 12.03% and a net margin of 11.83%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 8.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.21 EPS. Research analysts expect that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 1.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently commented on the company. 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. Northland Securities reduced their price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments from $53.00 to $47.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Citigroup cut shares of Veeco Instruments from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the company from $45.00 to $50.00 in a research note on Monday, July 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on shares of Veeco Instruments from $39.00 to $35.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $55.00 price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $45.57.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Veeco Instruments

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in 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 in the last quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP increased its holdings 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 valued at $82,096,000 after purchasing an additional 53,715 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in Veeco Instruments by 3.9% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,326,385 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $72,189,000 after purchasing an additional 87,605 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its position in Veeco Instruments by 8.6% in the 4th quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 1,705,572 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $52,924,000 after purchasing an additional 135,687 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Driehaus Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 119.3% during the 2nd quarter. Driehaus Capital Management LLC now owns 1,458,288 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $68,117,000 after buying an additional 793,429 shares in the last quarter. 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.