Benchmark Has Lowered Expectations for Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) Stock Price

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) had its price objective lowered by investment analysts at Benchmark from $42.00 to $38.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “buy” rating on the semiconductor company’s stock. Benchmark’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 24.55% from the company’s current price.

Several other analysts also recently weighed in on the stock. Citigroup downgraded shares of Veeco Instruments from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $45.00 to $50.00 in a research report on Monday, July 15th. Northland Securities dropped their target price on shares of Veeco Instruments from $53.00 to $47.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. StockNews.com raised shares of Veeco Instruments from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $55.00 target price on shares of Veeco Instruments in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments from $39.00 to $35.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Veeco Instruments has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $45.00.

Veeco Instruments Stock Up 1.4 %

Shares of Veeco Instruments stock opened at $30.51 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $1.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.58 and a beta of 1.17. Veeco Instruments has a 52-week low of $26.23 and a 52-week high of $49.25. The company has a quick ratio of 2.32, a current ratio of 3.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $31.33 and its 200-day moving average price is $37.51.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.42 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.43 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $175.88 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $176.03 million. Veeco Instruments had a return on equity of 12.03% and a net margin of 11.83%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.21 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Veeco Instruments will post 1.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.63, for a total transaction of $81,575.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 82,642 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,696,608.46. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 2.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp raised its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 1.3% in the first quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 49,310 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,734,000 after acquiring an additional 639 shares in the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP lifted its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 45.4% in the first quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 12,818 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $451,000 after acquiring an additional 4,000 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in Veeco Instruments in the first quarter valued at $217,000. Lisanti Capital Growth LLC acquired a new stake in Veeco Instruments in the first quarter valued at $1,579,000. Finally, Montag A & Associates Inc. acquired a new stake in Veeco Instruments in the first quarter valued at $99,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.46% of the company’s stock.

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.