Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) Trading Down 6.2% After Insider Selling

Shares of Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) fell 6.2% during trading on Wednesday after an insider sold shares in the company. The stock traded as low as $47.00 and last traded at $47.7650. Approximately 193,267 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 84% from the average daily volume of 1,219,046 shares. The stock had previously closed at $50.91.

Specifically, CEO William John Miller sold 200,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $54.18, for a total value of $10,836,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 169,570 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,187,302.60. This trade represents a 54.12% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have issued reports on the stock. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Veeco Instruments from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, July 6th. Wall Street Zen raised Veeco Instruments from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 8th. Weiss Ratings raised Veeco Instruments from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Citigroup upped their target price on Veeco Instruments from $60.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 10th. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments from $30.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Veeco Instruments presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $49.33.

Veeco Instruments Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of $2.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 131.11 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 3.93 and a quick ratio of 2.69. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $58.97 and a 200 day simple moving average of $48.57.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 5th. The semiconductor company reported $0.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 the consensus estimate of $180.08 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.20 EPS. Veeco Instruments’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. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 0.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Veeco Instruments

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in Veeco Instruments during the second quarter valued at about $728,127,000. Paradigm Capital Management Inc. NY acquired a new stake in shares of Veeco Instruments in the 2nd quarter valued at $156,557,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company acquired a new position in shares of Veeco Instruments in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $134,434,000. Magnetar Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Veeco Instruments in the fourth quarter valued at $48,342,000. Finally, Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC acquired a new position in Veeco Instruments during the 2nd quarter worth $65,836,000. 98.46% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.