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 the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.51, for a total value of $61,275.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 72,642 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,780,455.42. The trade was a 3.33 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

Veeco Instruments Trading Down 0.1 %

VECO stock opened at $23.65 on Thursday. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a 52-week low of $23.00 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 firm has a market cap of $1.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.52 and a beta of 1.13. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $26.74 and its 200-day simple moving average is $30.12.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The semiconductor company reported $0.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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, equities analysts forecast that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 1.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Veeco Instruments

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC raised its position in Veeco Instruments by 257.4% during the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,276 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 919 shares during the period. Signaturefd LLC increased its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 130.6% during the third quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,328 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 752 shares in the last quarter. 272 Capital LP acquired a new position in shares of Veeco Instruments during the 3rd quarter worth about $50,000. KBC Group NV lifted its stake in Veeco Instruments by 46.8% in the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,088 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $69,000 after buying an additional 666 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 116.2% in the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,626 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $120,000 after buying an additional 1,949 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.46% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have issued reports on VECO. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target 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. StockNews.com raised shares of Veeco Instruments from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and set a $35.00 target price (down from $40.00) on shares of Veeco Instruments in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Benchmark cut their price target on Veeco Instruments from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Citigroup raised Veeco Instruments from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $33.00 price objective for the company in a report on Monday, January 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 MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $39.00.

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.