Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) Stock Rated “Hold” by Wall Street Brokerages

Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the six ratings firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month price target among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $61.33.

VECO has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Veeco Instruments from $60.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 10th. Northland Securities raised shares of Veeco Instruments from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $66.00 target price for the company in a research report on Monday, September 21st. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Veeco Instruments from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, July 6th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Veeco Instruments from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Saturday, September 12th. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded Veeco Instruments from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Friday, August 21st.

Veeco Instruments Trading Up 2.5%

Shares of NASDAQ VECO opened at $53.19 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 3.93 and a quick ratio of 2.69. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 147.75 and a beta of 1.36. Veeco Instruments has a 1-year low of $26.00 and a 1-year high of $86.63. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $47.40 and a 200 day moving average price of $51.61.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 5th. The semiconductor company reported $0.33 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.26 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $193.48 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $180.08 million. Veeco Instruments had a return on equity of 3.52% and a net margin of 3.40%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.20 earnings per share. Veeco Instruments has set its FY 2026 guidance at 1.360-1.610 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 0.350-0.490 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Veeco Instruments will post 0.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO John Kiernan sold 35,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.05, for a total transaction of $1,786,750.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 68,802 shares in the company, valued at $3,512,342.10. The trade was a 33.72% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO William Miller sold 200,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $54.18, for a total value of $10,836,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 169,570 shares in the company, valued at $9,187,302.60. This represents a 54.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 2.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in VECO. Tema ETFs LLC purchased a new stake in Veeco Instruments during the 2nd quarter valued at about $33,000. Allworth Financial LP acquired a new stake in Veeco Instruments in the 2nd quarter valued at about $39,000. Royal Bank of Canada lifted its stake in Veeco Instruments by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 97,050 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $3,286,000 after purchasing an additional 632 shares in the last quarter. Nykredit A S purchased a new position in Veeco Instruments in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $49,000. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new position in shares of Veeco Instruments during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $69,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.46% of the company’s stock.

About Veeco Instruments

Veeco Instruments Inc (NASDAQ:VECO) develops and manufactures process equipment used to produce semiconductors, compound semiconductors, data-storage devices and other advanced electronic materials. Its systems are designed to support critical steps in manufacturing, including deposition, etching, annealing and lithography-related processes.

The company’s product portfolio includes metal-organic chemical vapor deposition systems, molecular beam epitaxy systems, ion beam etch and deposition equipment, laser annealing systems, and other specialized process tools.