Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) SVP Sells $225,705.00 in Stock

Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) SVP Adrian Devasahayam sold 11,010 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.50, for a total transaction of $225,705.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 89,254 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,829,707. The trade was a 10.98% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link.

Veeco Instruments Trading Up 1.7%

Veeco Instruments stock opened at $21.81 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $19.40 and a two-hundred day moving average of $23.10. The stock has a market cap of $1.31 billion, a PE ratio of 17.59 and a beta of 1.11. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a one year low of $16.92 and a one year high of $49.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 2.69 and a current ratio of 3.98.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The semiconductor company reported $0.37 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.32 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $167.29 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $166.00 million. Veeco Instruments had a return on equity of 9.38% and a net margin of 10.28%. The company’s revenue was down 4.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.45 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 0.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on VECO shares. Needham & Company LLC reduced their target price on shares of Veeco Instruments from $35.00 to $29.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of Veeco Instruments from $22.00 to $21.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Citigroup cut their price target on Veeco Instruments from $33.00 to $30.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on Veeco Instruments from $27.00 to $20.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 9th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Veeco Instruments from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $30.43.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Rhumbline Advisers lifted its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 3.9% in the 4th quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 163,066 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $4,370,000 after acquiring an additional 6,125 shares during the period. Baillie Gifford & Co. raised its position in Veeco Instruments by 23.3% during the 4th quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 778,280 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $20,858,000 after purchasing an additional 147,269 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 5.1% in the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 327,887 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $8,787,000 after buying an additional 16,001 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund lifted its position in Veeco Instruments by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 433,440 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $11,616,000 after acquiring an additional 2,683 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Handelsbanken Fonder AB bought a new stake in shares of Veeco Instruments in the 4th quarter worth approximately $415,000. 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.