Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) Price Target Cut to $40.00 by Analysts at Oppenheimer

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) had its target price lowered by Oppenheimer from $45.00 to $40.00 in a research note published on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an outperform rating on the semiconductor company’s stock.

VECO has been the subject of a number of other reports. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $55.00 price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Veeco Instruments from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Benchmark dropped their price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on Veeco Instruments from $35.00 to $30.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Finally, Citigroup cut Veeco Instruments from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $45.00 to $50.00 in a research note on Monday, July 15th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $42.14.

Veeco Instruments Trading Down 1.4 %

VECO stock traded down $0.40 during trading on Thursday, hitting $28.68. The company had a trading volume of 693,726 shares, compared to its average volume of 661,569. The stock has a market cap of $1.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.54 and a beta of 1.17. 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 firm has a 50-day moving average price of $31.21 and a 200-day moving average price of $37.45. Veeco Instruments has a 12 month low of $26.23 and a 12 month high of $49.25.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.42 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by ($0.01). Veeco Instruments had a return on equity of 11.13% and a net margin of 11.34%. The firm had revenue of $175.88 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $176.03 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.21 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Veeco Instruments will post 1.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Veeco Instruments

In other Veeco Instruments news, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.63, for a total value of $81,575.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 82,642 shares in the company, valued at $2,696,608.46. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 2.40% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Veeco Instruments

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC grew its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 165.0% during the 3rd quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC now owns 370,917 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $12,288,000 after acquiring an additional 230,971 shares during the period. Avior Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 34.2% during the third quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 8,754 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $290,000 after acquiring an additional 2,231 shares in the last quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG purchased a new position in shares of Veeco Instruments in the third quarter valued at $1,368,000. Quest Partners LLC boosted its stake in Veeco Instruments by 47.0% in the 3rd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 8,922 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $296,000 after purchasing an additional 2,853 shares during the period. Finally, Natixis Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 95.8% during the 3rd quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 32,732 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,084,000 after buying an additional 16,012 shares in 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.