Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO – Get Free Report) and PDF Solutions (NASDAQ:PDFS – Get Free Report) are both technology companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, analyst recommendations, dividends, risk, institutional ownership, profitability and valuation.
Valuation and Earnings
This table compares Veeco Instruments and PDF Solutions”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Veeco Instruments | $664.29 million | 4.11 | $35.39 million | $0.36 | 124.08 |
| PDF Solutions | $219.02 million | 8.32 | -$640,000.00 | $0.25 | 182.60 |
Institutional and Insider Ownership
98.5% of Veeco Instruments shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 79.5% of PDF Solutions shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.7% of Veeco Instruments shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 11.1% of PDF Solutions shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Profitability
This table compares Veeco Instruments and PDF Solutions’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Veeco Instruments | 3.40% | 3.52% | 2.32% |
| PDF Solutions | 4.27% | 7.21% | 4.83% |
Analyst Ratings
This is a summary of current recommendations for Veeco Instruments and PDF Solutions, as provided by MarketBeat.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Veeco Instruments | 0 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 2.17 |
| PDF Solutions | 0 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 2.60 |
Veeco Instruments presently has a consensus price target of $49.33, indicating a potential upside of 10.44%. PDF Solutions has a consensus price target of $63.00, indicating a potential upside of 38.01%. Given PDF Solutions’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe PDF Solutions is more favorable than Veeco Instruments.
Volatility and Risk
Veeco Instruments has a beta of 1.37, indicating that its stock price is 37% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, PDF Solutions has a beta of 1.64, indicating that its stock price is 64% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
PDF Solutions beats Veeco Instruments on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.
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.
About PDF Solutions
PDF Solutions, Inc. provides proprietary software and physical intellectual property products for integrated circuit designs, electrical measurement hardware tools, proven methodologies, and professional services in the United States, China, Japan, and internationally. The company offers Exensio software products, such as Manufacturing Analytics that store collected data in a common environment with a consistent view for enabling product engineers to identify and analyze production yield, performance, reliability, and other issues; Process Control that provides failure detection and classification capabilities for monitoring, alarming, and controlling manufacturing tool sets; Test Operations that offer data collection and analysis capabilities; and Assembly Operations that provide device manufacturers with the capability to link assembly and packaging data, including fabrication and characterization data over the product life cycle. It also provides Design-For-Inspection (DFI) systems, such as DFI On-Chip Instruments; eProbe Non-Contact E-Beam Tool; and Characterization Vehicle (CV) system, which includes CV Test Chips and pdFasTest Electrical Testers, as well as Exensio characterization software, designed to analyze the measurements collected using the eProbe tool. In addition, the company offers Cimetrix software products that enables equipment manufacturers to provide industry standard interfaces on their products; and software-as-a-service, software related services, and characterization services. It sells its technologies and services through direct sales force, service teams, and strategic alliances to integrated device manufacturers, fabless semiconductor companies, foundries, equipment manufacturers, electronics manufacturing suppliers, original device manufacturers, out-sourced semiconductor assembly and test, and system houses. PDF Solutions, Inc. was founded in 1991 and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California.
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