Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) Trading Up 6.1% After Analyst Upgrade

Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) traded up 6.1% on Wednesday after Needham & Company LLC raised their price target on the stock from $43.00 to $46.00. Needham & Company LLC currently has a buy rating on the stock. Veeco Instruments traded as high as $40.30 and last traded at $39.78. 281,589 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 46% from the average session volume of 519,968 shares. The stock had previously closed at $37.49.

A number of other equities research analysts have also weighed in on VECO. Benchmark lifted their target price on Veeco Instruments from $34.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Veeco Instruments from $31.00 to $35.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Veeco Instruments from $28.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 16th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments from $36.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Veeco Instruments has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $38.14.

Insider Buying and Selling at Veeco Instruments

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

Institutional Trading of Veeco Instruments

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in VECO. ProShare Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 13.7% in the first quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 14,592 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $513,000 after purchasing an additional 1,755 shares during the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. raised its position in Veeco Instruments by 130.7% during the 1st 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. Montag A & Associates Inc. acquired a new stake in Veeco Instruments during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $99,000. Lisanti Capital Growth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Veeco Instruments in the 1st quarter valued at $1,579,000. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Veeco Instruments in the first quarter worth $217,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.46% of the company’s stock.

Veeco Instruments Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $2.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -60.94 and a beta of 1.18. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $35.25 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $31.86. The company has a quick ratio of 2.15, a current ratio of 3.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 14th. The semiconductor company reported $0.40 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $173.92 million during 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%. Equities research analysts forecast that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 1.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.