Insider Selling: Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO) Director Sells 17,714 Shares of Stock

Key Points

• Veeco Instruments director Gordon Hunter sold 17,714 shares on May 26 at an average price of $61.61, worth about $1.09 million. After the sale, he still owned 34,962 shares, a 33.63% reduction in his position.
• This follows two other recent insider sales by Hunter: 29,532 shares on May 12 and 7,746 shares on May 8, indicating a steady pattern of selling shares in the company.
• Veeco shares were trading lower at $59.13 as the report was published, while the company also recently posted Q1 earnings that missed estimates and gave Q2 and full-year guidance for 2026.

Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO - Get Free Report) Director Gordon Hunter sold 17,714 shares of Veeco Instruments stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.61, for a total value of $1,091,359.54. Following the sale, the director directly owned 34,962 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,154,008.82. This trade represents a 33.63% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink.

Gordon Hunter also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Tuesday, May 12th, Gordon Hunter sold 29,532 shares of Veeco Instruments stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.41, for a total value of $1,754,496.12.
• On Friday, May 8th, Gordon Hunter sold 7,746 shares of Veeco Instruments stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.76, for a total value of $455,154.96.

Veeco Instruments Stock Performance

Shares of Veeco Instruments stock traded down $1.11 on Thursday, reaching $59.13. 768,654 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,156,571. The company has a quick ratio of 2.86, a current ratio of 4.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a twelve month low of $19.04 and a twelve month high of $65.43. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 155.61 and a beta of 1.36. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $46.07 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $36.17.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The semiconductor company reported $0.14 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.20 by ($0.06). Veeco Instruments had a return on equity of 3.49% and a net margin of 3.53%.The firm had revenue of $158.34 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $160.07 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.37 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Veeco Instruments has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.200-0.320 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 1.500-1.850 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 1.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Veeco Instruments

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in VECO. Magnetar Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Veeco Instruments during the fourth quarter worth approximately $48,342,000. American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 920.1% during the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 676,502 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $20,586,000 after purchasing an additional 610,187 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 37.4% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 1,820,357 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $52,026,000 after purchasing an additional 495,767 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC increased its position in shares of Veeco Instruments by 1,164.3% during the fourth quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 477,386 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $13,644,000 after purchasing an additional 439,628 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Arbitrage LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Veeco Instruments during the fourth quarter worth approximately $11,648,000. 98.46% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the company. Citigroup boosted their price target on Veeco Instruments from $40.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Zacks Research raised Veeco Instruments from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Tuesday. Weiss Ratings cut Veeco Instruments from a "hold (c-)" rating to a "sell (d+)" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Veeco Instruments from $30.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 19th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a "hold" rating on shares of Veeco Instruments in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $40.60.

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.

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