Veeco Instruments Inc. $VECO Shares Purchased by Squarepoint Ops LLC

Squarepoint Ops LLC raised its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO) by 52.5% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 112,540 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after acquiring an additional 38,753 shares during the quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC’s holdings in Veeco Instruments were worth $8,531,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Tema ETFs LLC purchased a new position in shares of Veeco Instruments in the 2nd quarter valued at $33,000. Allworth Financial LP purchased a new stake in Veeco Instruments during the 2nd quarter worth $39,000. Nykredit A S purchased a new stake in Veeco Instruments during the 2nd quarter worth $49,000. Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new stake in Veeco Instruments in the 2nd quarter valued at $69,000. Finally, Smartleaf Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Veeco Instruments by 75.6% in the 2nd quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 2,366 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $49,000 after purchasing an additional 1,019 shares in the last quarter. 98.46% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on VECO. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $60.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 10th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Veeco Instruments from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 8th. Zacks Research lowered Veeco Instruments from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, July 6th. Barclays upped their price target on Veeco Instruments from $30.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 19th. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Veeco Instruments from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Friday, August 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $49.33.

Insider Activity at Veeco Instruments

In related news, CEO William Miller sold 200,000 shares of Veeco Instruments stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief executive officer owned 169,570 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,187,302.60. The trade was a 54.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO John P. Kiernan sold 35,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.05, for a total transaction of $1,786,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 68,802 shares in the company, valued at $3,512,342.10. This represents a 33.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Corporate insiders own 2.70% of the company’s stock.

Veeco Instruments Stock Down 1.9%

Shares of NASDAQ VECO opened at $43.90 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a quick ratio of 2.69 and a current ratio of 3.93. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a 1 year low of $25.27 and a 1 year high of $86.63. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $50.20 and its 200-day simple moving average is $50.04. The firm has a market cap of $2.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 121.94 and a beta of 1.37.

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

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.