Contrasting Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) & Analog Devices (NASDAQ:ADI)

Analog Devices (NASDAQ:ADI) and Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) are both technology companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, analyst recommendations, risk, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Analog Devices and Veeco Instruments, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Analog Devices	0	2	26	2	3.00
Veeco Instruments	0	4	2	0	2.33

Analog Devices currently has a consensus target price of $457.97, indicating a potential upside of 16.35%. Veeco Instruments has a consensus target price of $61.33, indicating a potential upside of 23.48%. Given Veeco Instruments’ higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Veeco Instruments is more favorable than Analog Devices.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Analog Devices	29.79%	16.39%	11.49%
Veeco Instruments	3.40%	3.52%	2.32%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Analog Devices and Veeco Instruments”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Analog Devices	$11.02 billion	17.31	$2.27 billion	$8.43	46.69
Veeco Instruments	$664.29 million	4.57	$35.39 million	$0.36	137.97

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

Insider and Institutional Ownership

86.8% of Analog Devices shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 98.5% of Veeco Instruments shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.4% of Analog Devices shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.7% of Veeco Instruments shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Risk & Volatility

Analog Devices has a beta of 1.2, meaning that its stock price is 20% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Veeco Instruments has a beta of 1.37, meaning that its stock price is 37% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Analog Devices beats Veeco Instruments on 10 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Analog Devices

Analog Devices, Inc. designs, manufactures, tests, and markets integrated circuits (ICs), software, and subsystems products in the United States, rest of North and South America, Europe, Japan, China, and rest of Asia. The company provides data converter products, which translate real-world analog signals into digital data, as well as translates digital data into analog signals; power management and reference products for power conversion, driver monitoring, sequencing, and energy management applications in the automotive, communications, industrial, and consumer markets; and power ICs that include performance, integration, and software design simulation tools for accurate power supply designs. It also offers amplifiers to condition analog signals; and radio frequency and microwave ICs to support cellular infrastructure; and micro-electro-mechanical systems technology solutions, including accelerometers used to sense acceleration, gyroscopes for sense rotation, inertial measurement units to sense multiple degrees of freedom, and broadband switches for radio and instrument systems, as well as isolators. In addition, the company provides digital signal processing and system products for numeric calculations. It serves clients in the industrial, automotive, consumer, instrumentation, aerospace, defense and healthcare, and communications markets through a direct sales force, third-party distributors, and independent sales representatives, as well as online. Analog Devices, Inc. was incorporated in 1965 and is headquartered in Wilmington, Massachusetts.

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.