Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) Raised to Buy at Citigroup

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) was upgraded by equities researchers at Citigroup from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued on Monday, Marketbeat reports. The brokerage presently has a $33.00 price objective on the semiconductor company’s stock. Citigroup’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 15.38% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other brokerages have also issued reports on VECO. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on shares of Veeco Instruments from $35.00 to $30.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Oppenheimer cut their target price on Veeco Instruments from $45.00 to $40.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Benchmark lowered their price target on Veeco Instruments from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Veeco Instruments from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $39.71.

Veeco Instruments Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:VECO opened at $28.60 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $1.62 billion, a PE ratio of 21.19 and a beta of 1.15. Veeco Instruments has a fifty-two week low of $25.52 and a fifty-two week high of $49.25. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $27.87 and a 200 day simple moving average of $33.54. 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 posted its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.46 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.01. Veeco Instruments had a return on equity of 10.92% and a net margin of 11.34%. The company had revenue of $184.80 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Veeco Instruments will post 1.12 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Veeco Instruments news, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.67, for a total transaction of $71,675.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 80,142 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,297,671.14. This represents a 3.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders own 2.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Veeco Instruments

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Signaturefd LLC boosted its stake in Veeco Instruments by 130.6% in the 3rd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,328 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 752 shares during the period. 272 Capital LP acquired a new stake in shares of Veeco Instruments in the third quarter worth $50,000. KBC Group NV grew its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments by 46.8% during the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,088 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $69,000 after buying an additional 666 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in Veeco Instruments by 116.2% during the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,626 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $120,000 after buying an additional 1,949 shares during the period. Finally, US Bancorp DE grew its stake in Veeco Instruments by 14.8% in the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 3,864 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $128,000 after purchasing an additional 498 shares in 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.