Northland Securities Upgrades Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) to “Outperform”

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) was upgraded by research analysts at Northland Securities from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report issued on Monday, Marketbeat reports. The brokerage presently has a $66.00 target price on the semiconductor company’s stock. Northland Securities’ price target points to a potential upside of 48.78% from the stock’s previous close. Northland Securities also issued estimates for Veeco Instruments’ Q1 2027 earnings at $0.42 EPS.

A number of other research firms have also recently issued reports on VECO. Zacks Research cut Veeco Instruments from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, July 6th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Veeco Instruments from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, September 12th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Veeco Instruments from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Friday, August 21st. Finally, Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Veeco Instruments from $60.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 10th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Veeco Instruments presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $61.33.

Veeco Instruments Stock Up 0.3%

Shares of VECO opened at $44.36 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 123.22 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 3.93 and a quick ratio of 2.69. Veeco Instruments has a one year low of $26.00 and a one year high of $86.63. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $48.04 and its 200-day simple moving average is $50.71.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The semiconductor company reported $0.33 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.26 by $0.07. Veeco Instruments had a return on equity of 3.52% and a net margin of 3.40%.The business had revenue of $193.48 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $180.08 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.20 EPS. Veeco Instruments’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.5% on a year-over-year basis. 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. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Veeco Instruments will post 0.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Veeco Instruments

In other news, CEO William Miller sold 200,000 shares of Veeco Instruments stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $54.18, for a total transaction of $10,836,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 169,570 shares in the company, valued at $9,187,302.60. The trade was a 54.12% 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, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 35,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 68,802 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,512,342.10. This trade represents a 33.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Corporate insiders own 2.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Veeco Instruments

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in VECO. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new stake in Veeco Instruments in the first quarter worth $904,000. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments by 37.4% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 1,820,357 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $52,026,000 after buying an additional 495,767 shares during the period. Sei Investments Co. increased its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 210.9% in the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 73,163 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $2,477,000 after buying an additional 49,631 shares in the last quarter. Rokos Capital Management LLP bought a new stake in shares of Veeco Instruments in the 1st quarter valued at $3,228,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in Veeco Instruments by 14.5% during the 1st quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 114,390 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $3,873,000 after buying an additional 14,500 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 98.46% of the company’s stock.

About Veeco Instruments

Veeco Instruments Inc develops and manufactures specialized equipment used in the production of semiconductors and other advanced electronic components. Its systems support processes such as thin-film deposition, etching, lithography-related applications, and thermal processing, helping manufacturers create and refine microscopic structures on wafers and other materials.

The company’s product portfolio includes metal-organic chemical vapor deposition systems for compound semiconductors, ion beam etch and deposition equipment, laser annealing systems, and other wafer-processing technologies.