Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) Upgraded by Citigroup to "Buy" Rating

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO - Get Free Report) was upgraded by research analysts at Citigroup from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report issued on Monday, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has a $33.00 target price on the semiconductor company's stock. Citigroup's price target indicates a potential upside of 14.90% from the stock's current price.

VECO has been the topic of several other reports. Benchmark lowered their target price on Veeco Instruments from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments from $35.00 to $30.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Veeco Instruments from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Oppenheimer dropped their price target on shares of Veeco Instruments from $45.00 to $40.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Veeco Instruments currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $39.71.

Veeco Instruments Stock Performance

VECO stock traded up $1.56 on Monday, hitting $28.72. The company's stock had a trading volume of 972,049 shares, compared to its average volume of 666,116. The stock has a market cap of $1.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.27 and a beta of 1.15. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $27.91 and a two-hundred day moving average of $33.80. The company has a current ratio of 3.54, a quick ratio of 2.41 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. Veeco Instruments has a 1 year low of $25.52 and a 1 year high of $49.25.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.46 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.01. Veeco Instruments had a net margin of 11.34% and a return on equity of 10.92%. The business had revenue of $184.80 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $180.57 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.41 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Veeco Instruments will post 1.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Veeco Instruments news, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.67, for a total transaction of $71,675.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 80,142 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,297,671.14. The trade was a 3.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 2.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in VECO. Wasatch Advisors LP grew its stake in Veeco Instruments by 50.3% in the 3rd quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 2,640,649 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $87,485,000 after acquiring an additional 883,815 shares during the last quarter. Driehaus Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $68,117,000 after purchasing an additional 793,429 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 20.1% in 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 during the last quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP increased its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 37.3% during the 3rd quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP now owns 1,175,759 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $38,953,000 after purchasing an additional 319,451 shares in the last quarter. Finally, New York State Common Retirement Fund raised its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 249.0% during the 3rd 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. 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.