Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) Upgraded at Citigroup

Citigroup upgraded shares of Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) from a neutral rating to a buy rating in a research report report published on Monday, MarketBeat reports. The firm currently has $33.00 target price on the semiconductor company’s stock.

Several other brokerages also recently commented on VECO. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Veeco Instruments from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Benchmark dropped their target price on Veeco Instruments from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on Veeco Instruments from $35.00 to $30.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Oppenheimer decreased their price target on shares of Veeco Instruments from $45.00 to $40.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $39.71.

Veeco Instruments Trading Down 1.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ:VECO opened at $28.15 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.85 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 2.41 and a current ratio of 3.54. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $27.83 and a 200 day moving average price of $33.51. Veeco Instruments has a 1-year low of $25.52 and a 1-year high of $49.25.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.46 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $184.80 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $180.57 million. Veeco Instruments had a return on equity of 10.92% and a net margin of 11.34%. Veeco Instruments’s revenue was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.41 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Veeco Instruments will post 1.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Veeco Instruments news, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.67, for a total transaction of $71,675.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 80,142 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,297,671.14. This represents a 3.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 2.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Veeco Instruments

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in VECO. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 284,686 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $7,786,000 after acquiring an additional 11,483 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 311,886 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $10,333,000 after acquiring an additional 2,583 shares during the last quarter. 272 Capital LP purchased a new position in shares of Veeco Instruments in the 3rd quarter worth about $50,000. Synovus Financial Corp purchased a new stake in Veeco Instruments in the third quarter worth approximately $633,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,337,321 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $44,314,000 after purchasing an additional 22,850 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.