Insider Selling: Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) CFO Sells 2,500 Shares of Stock

Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of Veeco Instruments stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.63, for a total value of $69,075.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 75,142 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,076,173.46. The trade was a 3.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink.

Veeco Instruments Trading Down 2.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ VECO traded down $0.56 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $26.13. 594,978 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 640,640. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.36 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 2.41 and a current ratio of 3.54. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $27.78 and a 200 day simple moving average of $33.17. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a twelve month low of $25.52 and a twelve month high of $49.25.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.01. Veeco Instruments had a return on equity of 10.92% and a net margin of 11.34%. The company had revenue of $184.80 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $180.57 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.41 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 1.12 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Wasatch Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 50.3% in the third quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 2,640,649 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $87,485,000 after buying an additional 883,815 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 20.1% during the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 2,216,351 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $73,428,000 after acquiring an additional 371,221 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its position in Veeco Instruments by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,091,995 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $69,308,000 after acquiring an additional 30,008 shares in the last quarter. Driehaus Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Veeco Instruments by 119.3% during the second quarter. Driehaus Capital Management LLC now owns 1,458,288 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $68,117,000 after purchasing an additional 793,429 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 1.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,337,321 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $44,314,000 after purchasing an additional 22,850 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.46% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on VECO shares. Citigroup raised Veeco Instruments from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $33.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on shares of Veeco Instruments from $35.00 to $30.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Benchmark lowered their price target on shares of Veeco Instruments from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Oppenheimer dropped their price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments from $45.00 to $40.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Veeco Instruments from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $39.71.

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.