Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) Sees Significant Decrease in Short Interest

Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) saw a significant decline in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 5,430,000 shares, a decline of 16.3% from the February 13th total of 6,490,000 shares. Currently, 9.6% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 710,400 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 7.6 days.

Insider Activity at Veeco Instruments

In related news, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 2,500 shares of Veeco Instruments stock in a transaction on Friday, January 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.63, for a total transaction of $69,075.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 75,142 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,076,173.46. The trade was a 3.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 2.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Veeco Instruments

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Veeco Instruments by 1.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,337,321 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $44,314,000 after acquiring an additional 22,850 shares during the last quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC increased its stake in Veeco Instruments by 165.0% during the third quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC now owns 370,917 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $12,288,000 after acquiring an additional 230,971 shares during the last quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Veeco Instruments by 257.4% during the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,276 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 919 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments by 15.1% during the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 493,039 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $13,213,000 after buying an additional 64,824 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PDT Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Veeco Instruments during the third quarter valued at approximately $2,109,000. 98.46% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

VECO has been the topic of several analyst reports. Citigroup lowered their target price on Veeco Instruments from $33.00 to $30.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Benchmark lowered their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $38.00 to $31.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $35.00 price objective (down from $40.00) on shares of Veeco Instruments in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Barclays lowered their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $30.00 to $25.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Veeco Instruments from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Veeco Instruments has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $32.43.

Veeco Instruments Trading Up 1.2 %

Shares of VECO stock opened at $21.84 on Thursday. Veeco Instruments has a 12-month low of $20.05 and a 12-month high of $49.25. The company has a current ratio of 3.98, a quick ratio of 2.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $24.17 and its 200-day moving average price is $27.63. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.61 and a beta of 1.24.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The semiconductor company reported $0.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.40 by ($0.14). Veeco Instruments had a return on equity of 9.38% and a net margin of 10.28%. Equities research analysts predict that Veeco Instruments will post 0.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.