Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) Trading Up 8.1% – Here’s Why

Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) was up 8.1% on Friday . The company traded as high as $77.90 and last traded at $77.35. Approximately 1,001,285 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 17% from the average daily volume of 1,208,994 shares. The stock had previously closed at $71.55.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on VECO shares. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Veeco Instruments in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Zacks Research raised shares of Veeco Instruments from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Veeco Instruments to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, June 6th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Veeco Instruments from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Veeco Instruments from $30.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Veeco Instruments has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $40.60.

Veeco Instruments Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 4.23 and a quick ratio of 2.86. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 202.98 and a beta of 1.39. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $52.44 and its 200 day simple moving average is $38.74.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The semiconductor company reported $0.14 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.20 by ($0.06). The company had revenue of $158.34 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $160.07 million. Veeco Instruments had a return on equity of 3.49% and a net margin of 3.53%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.37 earnings per share. Veeco Instruments has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.200-0.320 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 1.500-1.850 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 1.1 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Gordon Hunter sold 29,532 shares of Veeco Instruments stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.41, for a total transaction of $1,754,496.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 52,676 shares in the company, valued at $3,129,481.16. This trade represents a 35.92% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Susan Wilkerson sold 35,723 shares of Veeco Instruments stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.69, for a total transaction of $2,203,751.87. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 42,974 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,651,066.06. This represents a 45.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last three months, insiders sold 323,549 shares of company stock valued at $19,626,673. 2.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Bank of America Corp DE grew its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments by 17.1% during the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 286,409 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $9,698,000 after buying an additional 41,925 shares during the last quarter. Atreides Management LP acquired a new position in shares of Veeco Instruments during the first quarter valued at about $7,921,000. Amundi grew its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments by 37.7% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 32,593 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,104,000 after buying an additional 8,924 shares during the last quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System boosted its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 29.0% during the first quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 73,789 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $2,498,000 after purchasing an additional 16,610 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 0.7% during the first 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 during the last quarter. 98.46% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Veeco Instruments

Veeco Instruments Inc (NASDAQ: VECO) is a leading supplier of process equipment for the semiconductor, data storage, wireless communications, power electronics and advanced packaging industries. The company designs, manufactures and services precision tools used to grow, deposit and etch thin films on substrates, enabling the fabrication of chips, light-emitting diodes (LEDs), micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) and high-density storage devices. Veeco’s platforms are deployed across fabrication facilities worldwide, where they support key processes in materials science and device manufacturing.

Veeco’s product portfolio spans molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD), atomic layer deposition (ALD), ion beam etch and deposition, and high-precision wet and dry etch systems.