Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) Shares Gap Up – What’s Next?

Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO)’s stock price gapped up prior to trading on Monday . The stock had previously closed at $27.16, but opened at $28.55. Veeco Instruments shares last traded at $28.66, with a volume of 72,678 shares.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VECO has been the subject of a number of research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on shares of Veeco Instruments from $35.00 to $30.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Oppenheimer reduced their price target on shares of Veeco Instruments from $45.00 to $40.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Benchmark reduced their price target on shares of Veeco Instruments from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 7th. StockNews.com raised shares of Veeco Instruments from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Citigroup raised shares of Veeco Instruments from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $33.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $39.71.

Veeco Instruments Price Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 2.41, a current ratio of 3.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The business’s 50-day moving average is $27.91 and its two-hundred day moving average is $33.80. The company has a market capitalization of $1.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.64 and a beta of 1.15.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.46 earnings per share 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 company had revenue of $184.80 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $180.57 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.41 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 1.12 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Veeco Instruments news, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of Veeco Instruments stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.67, for a total value of $71,675.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 80,142 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,297,671.14. The trade was a 3.03 % 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 own 2.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Veeco Instruments

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Natixis Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 5.8% in the second quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 16,720 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $781,000 after purchasing an additional 915 shares in the last quarter. Great Lakes Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Veeco Instruments in the second quarter worth about $4,219,000. American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 12.2% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 30,598 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,429,000 after purchasing an additional 3,337 shares in the last quarter. Inspire Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Veeco Instruments in the second quarter worth about $2,710,000. Finally, Herald Investment Management Ltd increased its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 16.7% in the second quarter. Herald Investment Management Ltd now owns 140,000 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $6,537,000 after purchasing an additional 20,000 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.