Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) Given New $25.00 Price Target at Barclays

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) had its target price decreased by research analysts at Barclays from $30.00 to $25.00 in a research note issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “equal weight” rating on the semiconductor company’s stock. Barclays‘s price objective indicates a potential upside of 5.71% from the company’s current price.

VECO has been the subject of several other research reports. Benchmark cut their price target on Veeco Instruments from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $35.00 target price (down from $40.00) on shares of Veeco Instruments in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Citigroup raised Veeco Instruments from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $33.00 target price for the company in a research report on Monday, January 6th. StockNews.com raised shares of Veeco Instruments from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments from $35.00 to $30.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $37.57.

Veeco Instruments Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of Veeco Instruments stock opened at $23.65 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $1.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.52 and a beta of 1.13. Veeco Instruments has a 1 year low of $23.00 and a 1 year high of $49.25. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $26.74 and its 200-day simple moving average is $30.12. The company has a current ratio of 3.54, a quick ratio of 2.41 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The semiconductor company reported $0.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.40 by ($0.14). Veeco Instruments had a return on equity of 10.92% and a net margin of 11.34%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Veeco Instruments will post 1.12 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.63, for a total transaction of $69,075.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 75,142 shares in the company, valued at $2,076,173.46. This trade represents a 3.22 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 2.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Veeco Instruments

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in VECO. US Bancorp DE raised its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 14.8% in the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 3,864 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $128,000 after acquiring an additional 498 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV increased its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 46.8% during the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,088 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $69,000 after purchasing an additional 666 shares in the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC raised its position in Veeco Instruments by 130.6% in the 3rd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,328 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $44,000 after purchasing an additional 752 shares during the last quarter. Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in Veeco Instruments by 11.0% in the 3rd quarter. Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC now owns 9,099 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $301,000 after purchasing an additional 901 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Smartleaf Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in 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. 98.46% of the stock is 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.