Wasatch Advisors LP Trims Stock Holdings in Veeco Instruments Inc. $VECO

Wasatch Advisors LP reduced its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) by 66.5% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 232,561 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 461,351 shares during the period. Wasatch Advisors LP’s holdings in Veeco Instruments were worth $17,628,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of VECO. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division purchased a new stake in Veeco Instruments in the second quarter worth $633,000. PVG Asset Management Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Veeco Instruments during the first quarter valued at $84,000. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its stake 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 purchasing an additional 41,925 shares during the period. Atreides Management LP bought a new position in shares of Veeco Instruments in the first quarter worth about $7,921,000. Finally, Amundi grew its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments by 37.7% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 32,593 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,104,000 after purchasing an additional 8,924 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.46% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Gordon Hunter sold 17,714 shares of Veeco Instruments stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.61, for a total value of $1,091,359.54. Following the transaction, the director owned 34,962 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,154,008.82. The trade was a 33.63% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO William John Miller sold 50,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.62, for a total value of $2,931,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 369,570 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,664,193.40. The trade was a 11.92% 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. In the last three months, insiders sold 193,076 shares of company stock worth $11,674,281. Insiders own 2.70% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on VECO shares. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments from $60.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Barclays upped 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. Wall Street Zen upgraded Veeco Instruments from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, August 8th. Zacks Research lowered Veeco Instruments from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, July 6th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised Veeco Instruments from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Veeco Instruments has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $49.33.

Veeco Instruments Stock Up 6.2%

Shares of Veeco Instruments stock opened at $53.26 on Thursday. 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 Inc. has a 1 year low of $23.31 and a 1 year high of $86.63. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $60.61 and its two-hundred day moving average is $47.77. The stock has a market cap of $3.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 147.94 and a beta of 1.38.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The semiconductor company reported $0.33 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $180.08 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.20 EPS. The company’s quarterly 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. As a group, research analysts expect that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 1.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.