Wasatch Advisors LP Lowers Holdings in Veeco Instruments Inc. $VECO

Wasatch Advisors LP decreased its stake in shares of Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) by 31.6% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 693,912 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 319,926 shares during the quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP owned about 1.15% of Veeco Instruments worth $23,496,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. New York Life Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Veeco Instruments during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,808,000. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments by 37.4% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 1,820,357 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $52,026,000 after purchasing an additional 495,767 shares in the last quarter. Nano Cap New Millennium Growth Fund L P purchased a new position in shares of Veeco Instruments in the fourth quarter valued at $1,572,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its position in Veeco Instruments by 11.0% in the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 746,429 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $22,714,000 after purchasing an additional 74,106 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Veeco Instruments by 0.8% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,663,310 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $233,195,000 after purchasing an additional 62,016 shares during the last quarter. 98.46% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on VECO. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Veeco Instruments from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “sell (d)” rating in a research note on Monday, June 15th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Veeco Instruments to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, June 6th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $40.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Barclays upped their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $30.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 19th. Finally, Zacks Research raised Veeco Instruments from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have issued a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $40.60.

Veeco Instruments Trading Down 6.0%

Shares of VECO opened at $70.95 on Friday. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a 1-year low of $19.29 and a 1-year high of $86.63. The company has a 50-day moving average of $60.96 and a 200 day moving average of $42.26. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 186.72 and a beta of 1.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 4.23 and a quick ratio of 2.86.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last issued its 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 the consensus estimate of $160.07 million. Veeco Instruments had a return on equity of 3.49% and a net margin of 3.53%.Veeco Instruments’s revenue was down 5.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $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 expect that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 1.1 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Veeco Instruments

In other Veeco Instruments news, Director Gordon Hunter sold 16,974 shares of Veeco Instruments stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.80, for a total transaction of $1,167,811.20. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 11,236 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $773,036.80. The trade was a 60.17% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO William John Miller sold 50,000 shares of Veeco Instruments stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.62, for a total value of $2,931,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 369,570 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,664,193.40. This trade represents a 11.92% 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. Insiders have sold 339,055 shares of company stock valued at $20,705,270 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 2.70% of the company’s stock.

Veeco Instruments Profile

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.