Brokerages Set Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) Target Price at $27.50

Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) has earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the seven research firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $27.50.

A number of analysts recently issued reports on VECO shares. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Veeco Instruments in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Citigroup upped their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $29.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 12th.

Veeco Instruments Trading Up 4.4%

Shares of VECO stock opened at $33.61 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $31.31 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $28.67. Veeco Instruments has a 52-week low of $16.92 and a 52-week high of $35.77. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.03 billion, a PE ratio of 40.49 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 3.62 and a current ratio of 5.36.

Insider Buying and Selling at Veeco Instruments

In other news, CEO William John Miller sold 25,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.00, for a total value of $800,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 464,543 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,865,376. The trade was a 5.11% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 2.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Veeco Instruments

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Royal Bank of Canada raised its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 29.6% during the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 134,088 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $2,692,000 after buying an additional 30,646 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 51.5% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 29,785 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $598,000 after acquiring an additional 10,122 shares during the period. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its position in Veeco Instruments by 4.5% during the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 33,043 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $664,000 after acquiring an additional 1,434 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC lifted its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 148.0% in the first quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 474,415 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $9,526,000 after acquiring an additional 283,099 shares during the period. Finally, Woodline Partners LP acquired a new position in Veeco Instruments in the first quarter valued at approximately $618,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.46% of the company’s stock.

About Veeco Instruments

Veeco Instruments Inc (NASDAQ: VECO) is a leading supplier of process equipment for the semiconductor, data storage, wireless communications, power electronics and advanced packaging industries. The company designs, manufactures and services precision tools used to grow, deposit and etch thin films on substrates, enabling the fabrication of chips, light-emitting diodes (LEDs), micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) and high-density storage devices. Veeco’s platforms are deployed across fabrication facilities worldwide, where they support key processes in materials science and device manufacturing.

Veeco’s product portfolio spans molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD), atomic layer deposition (ALD), ion beam etch and deposition, and high-precision wet and dry etch systems.