Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) Given New $38.00 Price Target at Benchmark

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) had its target price lowered by analysts at Benchmark from $42.00 to $38.00 in a note issued to investors on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “buy” rating on the semiconductor company’s stock. Benchmark’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 24.55% from the stock’s current price.

VECO has been the topic of a number of other research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price target on shares of Veeco Instruments from $39.00 to $35.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. StockNews.com raised shares of Veeco Instruments from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Citigroup downgraded shares of Veeco Instruments from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the company from $45.00 to $50.00 in a research note on Monday, July 15th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $55.00 price target on shares of Veeco Instruments in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Northland Securities reduced their target price on shares of Veeco Instruments from $53.00 to $47.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Veeco Instruments has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $45.00.

Veeco Instruments Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:VECO opened at $30.51 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 2.32 and a current ratio of 3.52. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $31.33 and a 200 day moving average price of $37.51. Veeco Instruments has a fifty-two week low of $26.23 and a fifty-two week high of $49.25. The firm has a market cap of $1.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.58 and a beta of 1.17.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $175.88 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $176.03 million. Veeco Instruments had a net margin of 11.83% and a return on equity of 12.03%. Veeco Instruments’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.21 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Veeco Instruments will post 1.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Veeco Instruments

In other news, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.63, for a total value of $81,575.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 82,642 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,696,608.46. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 2.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Signaturefd LLC grew its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 130.6% during the 3rd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,328 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $44,000 after acquiring an additional 752 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 237.4% in the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,677 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $78,000 after buying an additional 1,180 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV grew its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 46.8% in the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,088 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $69,000 after buying an additional 666 shares during the last quarter. nVerses Capital LLC grew its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 733.3% in the 2nd quarter. nVerses Capital LLC now owns 2,500 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $117,000 after buying an additional 2,200 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Montag A & Associates Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Veeco Instruments in the 1st quarter worth approximately $99,000. 98.46% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.