Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) Hits New 12-Month Low Following Insider Selling

Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO)’s share price reached a new 52-week low on Wednesday after an insider sold shares in the company. The stock traded as low as $27.34 and last traded at $27.38, with a volume of 49046 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $27.97.

Specifically, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 directly owns 80,142 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,297,671.14. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently issued reports on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on shares of Veeco Instruments from $35.00 to $30.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Northland Securities cut their price target on shares of Veeco Instruments from $53.00 to $47.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $55.00 target price on shares of Veeco Instruments in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. StockNews.com raised shares of Veeco Instruments from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, Benchmark dropped their target price on shares of Veeco Instruments from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $42.14.

Veeco Instruments Stock Down 2.1 %

The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $30.84 and its 200 day moving average price is $37.38. The firm has a market cap of $1.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.27 and a beta of 1.17. The company has a quick ratio of 2.41, a current ratio of 3.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.46 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $184.80 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $180.57 million. Veeco Instruments had a net margin of 11.34% and a return on equity of 10.92%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.41 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 1.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Veeco Instruments

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of VECO. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp grew its position in Veeco Instruments by 1.3% in the 1st quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 49,310 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,734,000 after buying an additional 639 shares in the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP grew its position in Veeco Instruments by 45.4% in the 1st quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 12,818 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $451,000 after buying an additional 4,000 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new position in Veeco Instruments in the 1st quarter valued at about $217,000. Sei Investments Co. grew its position in Veeco Instruments by 130.7% in the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 48,075 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,691,000 after buying an additional 27,234 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ProShare Advisors LLC grew its position in Veeco Instruments by 13.7% in the 1st quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 14,592 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $513,000 after buying an additional 1,755 shares in the last quarter. 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.