Insider Selling: Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) Director Sells $80,000.00 in Stock

Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) Director Mary Jane Raymond sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.00, for a total value of $80,000.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 23,967 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $958,680. The trade was a 7.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Veeco Instruments Stock Performance

VECO traded down $0.04 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $39.56. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,131,405 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,096,636. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $26.00 and a fifty-two week high of $86.63. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.42 billion, a PE ratio of 98.90 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $44.94 and a 200 day simple moving average of $46.92. The company has a current ratio of 3.93, a quick ratio of 2.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 4th. The semiconductor company reported $0.36 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by ($0.07). The company had revenue of $209.38 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $213.33 million. Veeco Instruments had a return on equity of 3.85% and a net margin of 3.62%. The company’s revenue was up 26.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.36 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 0.95 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Tema ETFs LLC bought a new position in shares of Veeco Instruments during the 2nd quarter worth about $33,000. Allworth Financial LP acquired a new position in Veeco Instruments in the second quarter worth $39,000. Royal Bank of Canada grew its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 0.7% during the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 97,050 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $3,286,000 after acquiring an additional 632 shares during the last quarter. Nykredit A S acquired a new stake in shares of Veeco Instruments in the second quarter valued at approximately $49,000. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new stake in shares of Veeco Instruments in the second quarter valued at approximately $69,000. 98.46% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VECO has been the subject of several recent research reports. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $24.00 target price on shares of Veeco Instruments in a research note on Wednesday, October 14th. Citigroup dropped their price target on Veeco Instruments from $63.00 to $55.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Veeco Instruments from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Friday, August 21st. Wall Street Zen downgraded Veeco Instruments from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday. Finally, Northland Securities raised Veeco Instruments from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $66.00 price target for the company in a research report on Monday, September 21st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $50.00.

Veeco Instruments Company Profile

Veeco Instruments designs and manufactures process equipment used to make semiconductors and other advanced materials. Its systems support thin-film deposition, etching, lithography and related manufacturing processes. The company’s product portfolio includes metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD), molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), ion beam and laser-processing systems. These tools serve applications in compound semiconductors, advanced packaging, data storage and scientific research. Veeco serves customers around the world through its sales and service operations.