Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) Cut to “Hold” at Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC lowered shares of Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report issued on Friday, Marketbeat Ratings reports.

Separately, Benchmark cut their target price on Veeco Instruments from $31.00 to $28.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Veeco Instruments currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $27.33.

Veeco Instruments Trading Down 4.5%

Shares of VECO opened at $31.61 on Friday. Veeco Instruments has a 12-month low of $16.92 and a 12-month high of $34.45. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $25.37 and its 200-day simple moving average is $21.91. The company has a quick ratio of 3.43, a current ratio of 5.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. The firm 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 for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.22 by $0.14. Veeco Instruments had a return on equity of 7.38% and a net margin of 8.65%.The firm had revenue of $166.10 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $151.31 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.42 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Veeco Instruments will post 0.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Adrian Devasahayam sold 3,851 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.00, for a total value of $130,934.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 78,269 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,661,146. This trade represents a 4.69% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO William John Miller sold 25,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.00, for a total value of $800,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 514,543 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,465,376. The trade was a 4.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 61,911 shares of company stock valued at $1,781,550. Insiders own 2.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Veeco Instruments

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 342.6% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 8,807 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $177,000 after purchasing an additional 6,817 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 9.8% during the 1st quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 68,747 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,380,000 after purchasing an additional 6,145 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 4.0% during the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 341,069 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $6,849,000 after purchasing an additional 13,182 shares during the last quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 10,288.7% during the 1st quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 13,817 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $277,000 after purchasing an additional 13,684 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers lifted its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 8.3% during the 1st quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 176,679 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $3,548,000 after purchasing an additional 13,613 shares during the last quarter. 98.46% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.