Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) Reaches New 1-Year Low – Time to Sell?

Shares of Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) reached a new 52-week low during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $22.60 and last traded at $22.73, with a volume of 77716 shares. The stock had previously closed at $23.54.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently issued reports on VECO. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments from $30.00 to $25.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on Veeco Instruments from $35.00 to $30.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Citigroup cut their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $33.00 to $30.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $35.00 target price (down previously from $40.00) on shares of Veeco Instruments in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Veeco Instruments from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Veeco Instruments has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $32.43.

Veeco Instruments Trading Down 7.0 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 3.98 and a quick ratio of 2.69. The company has a market capitalization of $1.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.66 and a beta of 1.13. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $26.03 and a 200 day moving average price of $29.25.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The semiconductor company reported $0.26 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.40 by ($0.14). Veeco Instruments had a net margin of 10.28% and a return on equity of 9.38%. On average, equities analysts expect that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 0.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Veeco Instruments

In other news, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.51, for a total transaction of $61,275.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 72,642 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,780,455.42. The trade was a 3.33 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 2.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Veeco Instruments

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,477,260 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $200,391,000 after acquiring an additional 110,825 shares during the period. Wasatch Advisors LP raised its position in Veeco Instruments by 5.8% in the fourth quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 2,792,850 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $74,848,000 after purchasing an additional 152,201 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its position in Veeco Instruments by 24.0% in the fourth quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 2,748,172 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $73,651,000 after purchasing an additional 531,821 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in Veeco Instruments by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,242,750 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $60,107,000 after purchasing an additional 78,884 shares during the period. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 20.1% during the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 2,216,351 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $73,428,000 after purchasing an additional 371,221 shares in the last quarter. 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.