Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) CEO William John Miller Sells 25,000 Shares

Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) CEO William John Miller sold 25,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.00, for a total transaction of $800,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 514,543 shares in the company, valued at $16,465,376. This represents a 4.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

William John Miller also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Tuesday, September 9th, William John Miller sold 25,000 shares of Veeco Instruments stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.00, for a total transaction of $625,000.00.

Veeco Instruments Price Performance

VECO opened at $31.61 on Monday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $25.37 and its 200 day simple moving average is $21.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 3.43 and a current ratio of 5.10. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a 1 year low of $16.92 and a 1 year high of $34.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.90 billion, a PE ratio of 30.99 and a beta of 1.27.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.22 by $0.14. Veeco Instruments had a net margin of 8.65% and a return on equity of 7.38%. The business had revenue of $166.10 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $151.31 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.42 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 0.76 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Veeco Instruments

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Wasatch Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 4.9% in the second quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 3,396,804 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $69,023,000 after buying an additional 157,978 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 9.7% in the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 3,215,031 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $65,329,000 after purchasing an additional 284,716 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments by 6.6% during the first quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 2,930,315 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $58,841,000 after purchasing an additional 182,143 shares during the period. Paradigm Capital Management Inc. NY lifted its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. Paradigm Capital Management Inc. NY now owns 2,410,000 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $48,971,000 after buying an additional 30,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 4.7% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,433,171 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $29,125,000 after buying an additional 64,729 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.46% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on VECO shares. Needham & Company LLC cut shares of Veeco Instruments from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Veeco Instruments in a research report on Saturday, September 27th. Finally, Benchmark cut their price target on shares of Veeco Instruments from $31.00 to $28.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 7th. 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 MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $27.33.

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.