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

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO - Free Report) had its target price trimmed by Benchmark from $42.00 to $38.00 in a research report released on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a buy rating on the semiconductor company's stock.

Several other research firms have also issued reports on VECO. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on Veeco Instruments from $39.00 to $35.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Northland Securities reduced their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $53.00 to $47.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Citigroup lowered Veeco Instruments from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and raised their price objective for the company from $45.00 to $50.00 in a research note on Monday, July 15th. StockNews.com raised Veeco Instruments from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $55.00 price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $42.14.

Veeco Instruments Stock Performance

NASDAQ VECO traded down $1.02 on Thursday, reaching $29.08. The stock had a trading volume of 972,849 shares, compared to its average volume of 661,420. The company has a market cap of $1.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.60 and a beta of 1.17. Veeco Instruments has a 1-year low of $26.23 and a 1-year high of $49.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 3.52 and a quick ratio of 2.32. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $31.33 and a two-hundred day moving average of $37.51.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.42 earnings per share (EPS) 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 analyst estimates of $176.03 million. Veeco Instruments had a return on equity of 12.03% and a net margin of 11.83%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 8.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.21 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Veeco Instruments will post 1.2 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Veeco Instruments

In other Veeco Instruments news, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.63, for a total value 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 approximately $2,696,608.46. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 2.20% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of VECO. Driehaus Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Veeco Instruments by 119.3% in the second quarter. Driehaus Capital Management LLC now owns 1,458,288 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $68,117,000 after purchasing an additional 793,429 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Veeco Instruments by 5.8% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,131,073 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $250,800,000 after purchasing an additional 391,346 shares during the last quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund boosted its position in Veeco Instruments by 249.0% in the third quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 430,757 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $14,271,000 after purchasing an additional 307,348 shares during the last quarter. Mesirow Institutional Investment Management Inc. purchased a new position in Veeco Instruments in the second quarter worth $8,857,000. Finally, Baillie Gifford & Co. boosted its position in Veeco Instruments by 32.2% in the third quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 631,011 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $20,905,000 after purchasing an additional 153,754 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.