Critical Contrast: Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) vs. inTEST (NYSE:INTT)

inTEST (NYSE:INTT) and Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) are both technology companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, earnings, dividends, valuation, risk and analyst recommendations.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

63.2% of inTEST shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 98.5% of Veeco Instruments shares are held by institutional investors. 5.2% of inTEST shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.7% of Veeco Instruments shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Risk & Volatility

inTEST has a beta of 1.5, meaning that its share price is 50% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Veeco Instruments has a beta of 1.36, meaning that its share price is 36% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for inTEST and Veeco Instruments, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
inTEST	0	1	2	0	2.67
Veeco Instruments	0	4	3	0	2.43

inTEST presently has a consensus target price of $18.00, suggesting a potential upside of 40.08%. Veeco Instruments has a consensus target price of $52.00, suggesting a potential upside of 21.64%. Given inTEST’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe inTEST is more favorable than Veeco Instruments.

Profitability

This table compares inTEST and Veeco Instruments’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
inTEST	2.33%	5.31%	3.42%
Veeco Instruments	3.40%	3.52%	2.32%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares inTEST and Veeco Instruments”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
inTEST	$128.26 million	1.29	$9.34 million	$0.12	107.08
Veeco Instruments	$664.29 million	3.93	$35.39 million	$0.36	118.75

Veeco Instruments has higher revenue and earnings than inTEST. inTEST is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Veeco Instruments, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Veeco Instruments beats inTEST on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About inTEST

inTEST Corporation provides test and process technology solutions for use in manufacturing and testing in automotive, defense/aerospace, industrial, life sciences, security, and semiconductor markets worldwide. The company operates through three segments: Electronic Test, Environmental Technologies, and Process Technologies. The Electronic Test segment offers in2, Cobal, and LS series manipulators that hold various test heads and enable an operator to reposition a test head for alternate use with various probers or handlers on a test floor; and docking hardware products, which protect the interface contacts and ensure proper repeatable and precise alignment between the test head’s interface board and the prober’s probing assembly. This segment also provides tester interfaces that offer electrical connections between the tester and the wafer prober or IC handler; scorpion flying probe test systems that designs and manufactures robotics-based electronic test equipment; and BRiZ automated test and programming services. Its products are used in production testing of wafers and specialized packaged ICs in back-end testing by semiconductor manufacturers. The Environmental Technologies segment provides ThermoStream products that are used in the semi market as a stand-alone temperature management tool, or in various electronic test applications; thermal chambers; thermal platforms; Thermonics temperature conditioning products that offer tempered gas or fluid; and ultra-cold storage solutions, including biomedical freezers, refrigerators, and mobile storage solutions. The Process Technologies segment offers EKOHEAT and EASYHEAT induction heating systems; and digital streaming and image capturing solutions. The company markets and sells its products to semiconductor manufacturers, third-party foundries, test and assembly providers, and original equipment manufacturers. inTEST Corporation was incorporated in 1981 and is headquartered in Mount Laurel, New Jersey.

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. Its process equipment systems are used in the production of a range of microelectronic components, including logic, dynamic random-access memory, photonics devices, power electronics, radio frequency filters and amplifiers, magnetic heads for hard disk drives, and other semiconductor devices. In addition, the company markets and sells its products to integrated device manufacturers and foundries; outsourced semiconductor assembly and test companies; and hard disk drive and photonics manufacturers, as well as research centers and universities. Veeco Instruments Inc. was founded in 1945 and is headquartered in Plainview, New York.