Analysts Set Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) Price Target at $39.71

Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) has earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the seven ratings firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and five have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $39.71.

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on VECO shares. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments from $35.00 to $30.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Citigroup upgraded shares of Veeco Instruments from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $33.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Oppenheimer lowered their price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments from $45.00 to $40.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Veeco Instruments from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Benchmark decreased 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.

Veeco Instruments Trading Up 2.4 %

NASDAQ:VECO opened at $25.99 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $27.16 and its 200-day moving average price is $30.70. Veeco Instruments has a 52 week low of $23.24 and a 52 week high of $49.25. The company has a quick ratio of 2.41, a current ratio of 3.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The stock has a market cap of $1.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.25 and a beta of 1.13.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.46 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $184.80 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $180.57 million. Veeco Instruments had a net margin of 11.34% and a return on equity of 10.92%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.41 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Veeco Instruments will post 1.12 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 stock in a transaction on Friday, January 10th. The shares were 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 directly owns 75,142 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,076,173.46. This represents a 3.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 2.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Veeco Instruments

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 257.4% in the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,276 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 919 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 14.1% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 1,106,888 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $29,665,000 after purchasing an additional 137,194 shares in the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Veeco Instruments in the fourth quarter worth $311,000. Handelsbanken Fonder AB purchased a new stake in shares of Veeco Instruments in the fourth quarter worth $415,000. Finally, New York State Common Retirement Fund increased its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 433,440 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $11,616,000 after purchasing an additional 2,683 shares in the last quarter. 98.46% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.