Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) Shares Gap Down to $35.12

Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO)’s share price gapped down prior to trading on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $35.12, but opened at $32.80. Veeco Instruments shares last traded at $33.60, with a volume of 276,559 shares changing hands.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on VECO shares. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Veeco Instruments from $33.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 8th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $55.00 target price on shares of Veeco Instruments in a research report on Wednesday. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments from $35.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 9th. Citigroup lowered 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. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price target on Veeco Instruments from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 27th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $44.43.

Veeco Instruments Trading Down 3.8 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 2.02 and a current ratio of 3.05. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -78.04 and a beta of 1.22. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $43.76 and a 200 day moving average price of $38.45.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The semiconductor company reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.30 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $174.48 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $170.00 million. Veeco Instruments had a positive return on equity of 11.97% and a negative net margin of 2.51%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 1.31 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Veeco Instruments news, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.46, for a total value of $121,150.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 94,809 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,594,444.14. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of Veeco Instruments stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.46, for a total transaction of $121,150.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 94,809 shares in the company, valued at $4,594,444.14. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Dennis Thomas St sold 4,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.72, for a total transaction of $150,880.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 51,861 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,956,196.92. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 39,000 shares of company stock valued at $1,526,205. 2.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Veeco Instruments

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Veeco Instruments by 5.8% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,131,073 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $250,800,000 after purchasing an additional 391,346 shares in the last quarter. Blue Grotto Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Veeco Instruments in the fourth quarter valued at $11,476,000. Mesirow Institutional Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Veeco Instruments in the second quarter valued at $8,857,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its position in shares of 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, Phocas Financial Corp. acquired a new stake in shares of Veeco Instruments in the 4th quarter valued at about $3,599,000. 98.46% of the stock is 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.