VECO: Fears Of Falling Demand Appear Overdone

Analysts at Citigroup reiterate their "buy" rating on Veeco Instruments Inc

. The target price for VECO is set to $52. According to Citigroup, “VECO announced its Board authorized the repurchase of up to $200MM in common stock over the next 12mos. Based upon today’s closing price of ~$31 and CQ2:10 (Jun) fully diluted share count of ~43.5MM, this amounts to a buy-back of ~15% of total shares outstanding - a significant number. This would further create scarcity value here as VECO is already one of the few concentrated ways to play the LED buildout and it's share count would shrink to just ~37MM shares, likely adding even more volatility to the stock.” “Tuesday we added VECO to Top Picks Live, Citi’s list of best ideas, and raised our FY2011 EPS est. from $4.66 to $4.85. The catalyst for our call was a series of checks that reinforced our belief that the Street is overly concerned about an order cliff in the LED/solar business. We have increased confidence that orders should remain robust (flat +/- 10%) through year-end and even into CQ1:11,” the analysts mention.