Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) Shares Up 6.3% – Still a Buy?

Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) shot up 6.3% during trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $29.64 and last traded at $29.62. 215,918 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 67% from the average session volume of 657,312 shares. The stock had previously closed at $27.87.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on VECO. Benchmark cut their target price on shares of Veeco Instruments from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Oppenheimer decreased their target price on Veeco Instruments from $45.00 to $40.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Northland Securities cut their price target on Veeco Instruments from $53.00 to $47.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $55.00 price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Veeco Instruments from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $42.14.

Veeco Instruments Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 3.54 and a quick ratio of 2.41. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $29.91 and its 200 day simple moving average is $36.44. The company has a market capitalization of $1.65 billion, a PE ratio of 20.64 and a beta of 1.17.

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

Insider Activity at Veeco Instruments

In other news, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.04, for a total transaction of $72,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 85,142 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,472,523.68. This trade represents a 2.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders sold a total of 7,500 shares of company stock valued at $225,850 in the last three months. 2.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Veeco Instruments

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Signaturefd LLC lifted its position 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 during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 237.4% during the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,677 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $78,000 after purchasing an additional 1,180 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV lifted its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments by 46.8% during the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,088 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $69,000 after purchasing an additional 666 shares during the period. nVerses Capital LLC grew its position in Veeco Instruments by 733.3% in the 2nd quarter. nVerses Capital LLC now owns 2,500 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $117,000 after buying an additional 2,200 shares during the last quarter. Finally, US Bancorp DE increased its stake in Veeco Instruments by 14.8% in the 3rd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 3,864 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $128,000 after buying an additional 498 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.46% of the company’s stock.

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.