Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) Director Gordon Hunter Sells 17,714 Shares

Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) Director Gordon Hunter sold 17,714 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.61, for a total transaction of $1,091,359.54. Following the sale, the director owned 34,962 shares in the company, valued at $2,154,008.82. The trade was a 33.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link.

Gordon Hunter also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Tuesday, May 12th, Gordon Hunter sold 29,532 shares of Veeco Instruments stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.41, for a total transaction of $1,754,496.12.
• On Friday, May 8th, Gordon Hunter sold 7,746 shares of Veeco Instruments stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.76, for a total transaction of $455,154.96.

Veeco Instruments Price Performance

Veeco Instruments stock opened at $59.13 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $3.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 155.61 and a beta of 1.36. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $46.63 and a 200-day simple moving average of $36.37. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a 12-month low of $19.04 and a 12-month high of $65.43. The company has a current ratio of 4.23, a quick ratio of 2.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 5th. The semiconductor company reported $0.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.20 by ($0.06). The firm had revenue of $158.34 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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 for the quarter was down 5.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $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. Equities analysts expect that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 1.1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on VECO. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Veeco Instruments from $40.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Weiss Ratings cut Veeco Instruments from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Zacks Research upgraded Veeco Instruments from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Veeco Instruments from $30.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 19th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Veeco Instruments in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $40.60.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bank of America Corp DE raised its holdings in 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 worth $9,698,000 after purchasing an additional 41,925 shares in the last quarter. Atreides Management LP purchased a new position in Veeco Instruments in the first quarter worth $7,921,000. Amundi raised its position in 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 acquiring an additional 8,924 shares in the last quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System raised its position in Veeco Instruments by 29.0% in the first quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 73,789 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $2,498,000 after acquiring an additional 16,610 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised its position in Veeco Instruments by 0.7% in the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 97,050 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $3,286,000 after acquiring an additional 632 shares in the last quarter. 98.46% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Veeco Instruments

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.