Insider Selling: Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) SVP Sells 11,010 Shares of Stock

Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) SVP Adrian Devasahayam sold 11,010 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.50, for a total transaction of $225,705.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 89,254 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,829,707. The trade was a 10.98% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Veeco Instruments Price Performance

NASDAQ:VECO opened at $21.45 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $1.29 billion, a PE ratio of 17.30 and a beta of 1.11. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a 12 month low of $16.92 and a 12 month high of $49.25. The company has a quick ratio of 2.69, a current ratio of 3.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $19.33 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $23.10.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The semiconductor company reported $0.37 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.32 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $167.29 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $166.00 million. Veeco Instruments had a net margin of 10.28% and a return on equity of 9.38%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.45 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 0.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Veeco Instruments

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in VECO. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,477,260 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $200,391,000 after purchasing an additional 110,825 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 6.6% in the first quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 2,930,315 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $58,841,000 after buying an additional 182,143 shares during the period. Wasatch Advisors LP lifted its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 5.8% in the fourth quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 2,792,850 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $74,848,000 after buying an additional 152,201 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 24.0% in the fourth quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 2,748,172 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $73,651,000 after buying an additional 531,821 shares during the period. Finally, Paradigm Capital Management Inc. NY lifted its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 20.0% in the first quarter. Paradigm Capital Management Inc. NY now owns 2,380,000 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $47,790,000 after buying an additional 397,200 shares during the period. 98.46% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Veeco Instruments from $33.00 to $30.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Needham & Company LLC lowered their target price on shares of Veeco Instruments from $35.00 to $29.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Veeco Instruments from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Benchmark lowered their target price on shares of Veeco Instruments from $38.00 to $31.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Veeco Instruments from $22.00 to $21.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $30.43.

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.