Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) Upgraded to Outperform at Northland Securities

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) was upgraded by equities researchers at Northland Securities from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Monday, September 21st, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm presently has a $66.00 price objective on the semiconductor company’s stock. Northland Securities’ price objective points to a potential upside of 36.05% from the stock’s current price. Northland Securities also issued estimates for Veeco Instruments’ Q1 2027 earnings at $0.42 EPS, Q3 2027 earnings at $0.58 EPS and Q4 2027 earnings at $0.70 EPS.

Several other analysts have also recently weighed in on VECO. Citigroup lifted their price target on Veeco Instruments from $60.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 10th. Wall Street Zen raised Veeco Instruments from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Saturday, September 12th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Veeco Instruments from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Friday, August 21st. Finally, Zacks Research lowered shares of Veeco Instruments from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, July 6th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $61.33.

Veeco Instruments Stock Performance

Shares of VECO stock traded down $1.16 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $48.51. 83,857 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,123,574. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 134.79 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a quick ratio of 2.69 and a current ratio of 3.93. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $47.59 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $51.05. Veeco Instruments has a 52 week low of $26.00 and a 52 week high of $86.63.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The semiconductor company reported $0.33 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $193.48 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $180.08 million. Veeco Instruments had a return on equity of 3.52% and a net margin of 3.40%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.20 EPS. 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, equities research analysts anticipate that Veeco Instruments will post 0.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Veeco Instruments

In other Veeco Instruments news, CEO William Miller sold 200,000 shares of Veeco Instruments stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $54.18, for a total value of $10,836,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 169,570 shares in the company, valued at $9,187,302.60. The trade was a 54.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO John Kiernan sold 35,000 shares of Veeco Instruments stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.05, for a total value of $1,786,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 68,802 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,512,342.10. This represents a 33.72% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders own 2.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Veeco Instruments

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in Veeco Instruments in the second quarter valued at approximately $728,127,000. Paradigm Capital Management Inc. NY bought a new position in Veeco Instruments in the second quarter valued at about $156,557,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company bought a new position in Veeco Instruments in the second quarter valued at about $134,434,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in Veeco Instruments by 3.0% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,374,292 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $80,391,000 after purchasing an additional 68,780 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC bought a new position in Veeco Instruments in the second quarter valued at about $65,836,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.46% of the company’s stock.

About Veeco Instruments

Veeco Instruments Inc develops and manufactures specialized equipment used in the production of semiconductors and other advanced electronic components. Its systems support processes such as thin-film deposition, etching, lithography-related applications, and thermal processing, helping manufacturers create and refine microscopic structures on wafers and other materials.

The company’s product portfolio includes metal-organic chemical vapor deposition systems for compound semiconductors, ion beam etch and deposition equipment, laser annealing systems, and other wafer-processing technologies.