Critical Review: Veeco Instruments (VECO) vs. Its Competitors

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) is one of 221 publicly-traded companies in the “Semiconductors & Semiconductor Equipment” industry, but how does it compare to its rivals? We will compare Veeco Instruments to similar companies based on the strength of its analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, dividends, valuation, earnings, profitability and risk.

Profitability

This table compares Veeco Instruments and its rivals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Veeco Instruments	3.62%	3.81%	2.45%
Veeco Instruments Competitors	-1,267.00%	-126.31%	-3.96%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Veeco Instruments and its rivals, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Veeco Instruments	0	4	3	0	2.43
Veeco Instruments Competitors	3505	12358	25782	999	2.57

Veeco Instruments presently has a consensus target price of $50.00, indicating a potential upside of 34.44%. As a group, “Semiconductors & Semiconductor Equipment” companies have a potential upside of 53.71%. Given Veeco Instruments’ rivals stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Veeco Instruments has less favorable growth aspects than its rivals.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

98.5% of Veeco Instruments shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 54.8% of shares of all “Semiconductors & Semiconductor Equipment” companies are held by institutional investors. 2.7% of Veeco Instruments shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 11.5% of shares of all “Semiconductors & Semiconductor Equipment” companies are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Risk & Volatility

Veeco Instruments has a beta of 1.41, meaning that its stock price is 41% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Veeco Instruments’ rivals have a beta of 2.80, meaning that their average stock price is 180% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Veeco Instruments and its rivals revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Veeco Instruments	$664.29 million	$35.39 million	92.97
Veeco Instruments Competitors	$9.78 billion	$2.53 billion	8.28

Veeco Instruments’ rivals have higher revenue and earnings than Veeco Instruments. Veeco Instruments is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its rivals, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Summary

Veeco Instruments rivals beat Veeco Instruments on 8 of the 13 factors compared.

Veeco Instruments Company Profile

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.