John P. Kiernan Sells 2,500 Shares of Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) Stock

Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.04, for a total value of $72,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 85,142 shares in the company, valued at $2,472,523.68. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Veeco Instruments Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:VECO opened at $30.34 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 3.52 and a quick ratio of 2.32. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $38.54 and its 200-day moving average price is $38.66. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a one year low of $23.63 and a one year high of $49.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -67.42 and a beta of 1.17.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have issued reports on VECO. Benchmark reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $42.00 price target on shares of Veeco Instruments in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Northland Securities dropped their price target on shares of Veeco Instruments from $53.00 to $47.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 27th. Citigroup cut shares of Veeco Instruments from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $45.00 to $50.00 in a research report on Monday, July 15th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $55.00 price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Veeco Instruments presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $45.57.

Institutional Trading of Veeco Instruments

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Driehaus Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 119.3% in the second 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 during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 5.8% during the first 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 during the last quarter. Blue Grotto Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Veeco Instruments during the fourth quarter worth about $11,476,000. Mesirow Institutional Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Veeco Instruments in the second quarter worth about $8,857,000. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 8.6% during the 4th quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 1,705,572 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $52,924,000 after purchasing an additional 135,687 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.46% of the company’s stock.

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.