John Kiernan Sells 35,000 Shares of Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) Stock

Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) CFO John Kiernan sold 35,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.05, for a total value of $1,786,750.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 68,802 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,512,342.10. This trade represents a 33.72% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Veeco Instruments Stock Performance

Shares of Veeco Instruments stock traded up $3.11 on Wednesday, reaching $53.26. The stock had a trading volume of 781,160 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,244,202. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a quick ratio of 2.69 and a current ratio of 3.93. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $60.76 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $47.63. The stock has a market cap of $3.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 147.94 and a beta of 1.38. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $23.31 and a fifty-two week high of $86.63.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The semiconductor company reported $0.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.26 by $0.07. Veeco Instruments had a net margin of 3.40% and a return on equity of 3.52%. The business had revenue of $193.48 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $180.08 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.20 EPS. Veeco Instruments’s revenue was up 16.5% compared to the same quarter last year. 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. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 1.1 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently weighed in on VECO. Barclays increased their target price on Veeco Instruments from $30.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 19th. Weiss Ratings raised Veeco Instruments from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. Zacks Research lowered Veeco Instruments from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, July 6th. Wall Street Zen raised Veeco Instruments from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments from $60.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $49.33.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Veeco Instruments

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in Veeco Instruments during the second quarter valued at about $728,127,000. Wasatch Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 4.9% in the 2nd quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 3,396,804 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $69,023,000 after acquiring an additional 157,978 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments by 9.7% during the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 3,215,031 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $65,329,000 after purchasing an additional 284,716 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,481,803 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $75,521,000 after purchasing an additional 26,248 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Paradigm Capital Management Inc. NY increased its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 1.3% during the second quarter. Paradigm Capital Management Inc. NY now owns 2,410,000 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $48,971,000 after purchasing an additional 30,000 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 98.46% of the company’s stock.

Veeco Instruments Company 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.