# Veeco Instruments (VECO.US)

Canonical: https://gigainvestors.com/s/VECO

Analysis as of: 2026-10-16T07:32:50.531Z. Financial observations: FY1996–FY2026.

Listing currency: USD. Reporting currency: USD.

## Verdict

Not a wonderful business

Quality tests for Buy: not passed (profit record: fail; earnings resilience is evidence only). Published buy qualification: no.

Share price: $45.16 per share; close as of 2026-10-15.

Estimated value: low $13.68 per share, central $14.62 per share, high $15.88 per share. Buy at or below the central value $14.62 per share. Valuation as of 2026-10-16T07:32:50.531Z; scenarios are not confidence intervals.

Expected annual return: 4.4% at the stated quote. About 4.4% a year at today's price (required return 10.0%). required return 10.0% a year (10% floor; US 10-year bond 5.1% + 4 points).

## Checklist

### understandable: fail

- 3 revenue declines in the last 10 years (informational)

- more than 2 net loss years

- negative average operating margin

- operating margin variation exceeds 0.35

- Financial history: 10 years

- Years with declining revenue: 3

- Years with a net loss: 5

- Operating margin variation: 5.42×

Chart: Operating margin; fiscal year observations.

- FY2017: -0.13×

- FY2018: -0.77×

- FY2019: -0.09×

- FY2020: 0.05×

- FY2021: 0.10×

- FY2022: 0.09×

- FY2023: 0.10×

- FY2024: 0.09×

- FY2025: 0.05×

- LTM to Mar 2026: 0.03×

### moat: fail

- ROIC median below threshold

- ROIC worst years below threshold (more than 1 bad year allowed)

- ROIC, median of available years: 6.7%

- ROIC, second-lowest year: -66.2%

- Typical minus recent gross margin: 0.4 pp

- Typical gross margin (annual median): 40.3%

- Recent gross margin (lower of latest and 3-year median): 40.0%

- Years with nonpositive capital: 0

- Capital spending / revenue: 3.1%

- ROIC including acquisitions, ten-year median: 0.7%

Chart: ROIC excluding acquisitions; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: -66.2%

- FY2017: -9.4%

- FY2018: -115.4%

- FY2019: -11.9%

- FY2020: 7.5%

- FY2021: 19.0%

- FY2022: 14.9%

- FY2023: 11.9%

- FY2024: 12.7%

- FY2025: 5.9%

### economics: fail

- working capital as a share of revenue rose more than 10pp and ends positive

- Owner earnings / net income, 5-yr: 1.04×

- Cash conversion uses consolidated totals: No

- Owner earnings, five-year total: $282M

- Net income, five-year total: $272M

- Return on incremental invested capital: 34.9%

- Working capital / revenue, annual change: 2.1 pp

- Working capital / revenue, change between three-year averages: 15.3 pp

- Working capital / revenue, final three-year average: 50.1%

Chart: Annual owner cash / profit; fiscal year observations.

- FY2021: 1.00×

- FY2022: 1.01×

- FY2023: 1.00×

- FY2024: 1.10×

- FY2025: 1.05×

### management: fail

- Historical market-dollar context (not the management verdict): 2016 to 2025 (9 years)

- potential debt-funded buybacks (informational)

- buybacks unrelated to price (informational)

- ROIC first 3 years vs last 3 years: -66.2% vs 11.9%

- Per-share earnings: -1.01 to 0.58 (three-year endpoint medians)

- five-year and ten-year diluted share growth both above threshold

- Management verdict uses per-share economic progress: Yes

- Ordinary dilution, 10-year annual growth: 4.3%

- Ordinary dilution, 5-year annual growth: 4.6%

- Market cap gain: $543M

- Cumulative retained earnings: -$254M

- Diluted shares, 10-year annual growth: 4.3%

- Diluted shares, 5-year annual growth: 4.6%

- $1 test, starting fiscal year: FY2016

- $1 test, ending fiscal year: FY2025

- Per-share value change: $1.60

- Per-share value, starting three-year median: -$1.01

- Per-share value, ending three-year median: $0.58

- Buybacks concentrated in cheaper years (correlation): -0.15

- Average buyback yield: 1.0%

- Buyback history: 9 years

- Debt-funded buybacks: Yes

- Acquisition spending: $435M

- Cumulative net income, 10 years: -$389M

- ROIC, first three-year median: -66.2%

- ROIC, last three-year median: 11.9%

Chart: Earnings per share; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: -$3.11

- FY2017: -$1.01

- FY2018: -$8.63

- FY2019: -$1.66

- FY2020: -$0.17

- FY2021: $0.49

- FY2022: $2.54

- FY2023: -$0.56

- FY2024: $1.20

- FY2025: $0.58

### accounting: pass

- stock compensation exceeds 15% of operating cash flow

- Sloan accruals: -2.1%

- Receivables to sales index (DSRI): 1.17×

- Restructuring years, last five: 0

- Stock compensation / operating cash flow: 56.2%

- Earnings backed by cash: Yes

- Operating cash / earnings: 1.80×

- Accounting red flags: 1

- Goodwill and intangibles / equity: 0.25×

Chart: Sloan accruals; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: -13.0%

- FY2017: -5.7%

- FY2018: -41.0%

- FY2019: -8.7%

- FY2020: -5.7%

- FY2021: -4.6%

- FY2022: 5.2%

- FY2023: -7.5%

- FY2024: 0.8%

- FY2025: -2.1%

## Holders

- [Matthew McLennan](https://gigainvestors.com/FE): tracked 13F investor; follow the investor page for holding quarter and amounts.

- [Lee Ainslie](https://gigainvestors.com/mc): tracked 13F investor; follow the investor page for holding quarter and amounts.

- [Dan Davidowitz](https://gigainvestors.com/pcm): tracked 13F investor; follow the investor page for holding quarter and amounts.

## Price story

Down 40% since Jun 2026 · sales -1.3%

Story as of 2026-10-16T09:59:47.582Z; price observation 2026-10-15.

Price needs cash profits to grow 21.2% a year for ten years

- 2025-11-05: Veeco Receives Propel®300 MOCVD System Order From Leading GaN-on-Si Power Semiconductor IDM ([finance.yahoo.com](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/veeco-receives-propel-300-mocvd-140200119.html))

- 2026-05-05: Veeco Announces $250 Million+ in Equipment Orders for Manufacturing Indium Phosphide Lasers ([finance.yahoo.com](https://finance.yahoo.com/sectors/technology/articles/veeco-announces-250-million-equipment-200300233.html))

- 2026-06-09: Veeco Receives Follow-On Order for Nanosecond Annealing System; Expands Evaluation Activity ([finance.yahoo.com](https://finance.yahoo.com/sectors/technology/articles/veeco-receives-order-nanosecond-annealing-120500135.html))

### Sales · FY2025–2026

sales -1.3%; source https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/103145/000110465926019711/veco-20251231x10k.htm; observed 2026-02-25.

- FY2017: $485M 

- FY2018: $542M 

- FY2019: $419M 

- FY2020: $454M 

- FY2021: $583M 

- FY2022: $646M 

- FY2023: $666M 

- FY2024: $717M 

- FY2025: $664M 

- FY2026: $655M 

### Gross margin · FY2025

gross margin 40%; source https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/103145/000110465926019711/veco-20251231x10k.htm; observed 2026-02-25.

- FY2016: 40.0% 

- FY2017: 38.0% 

- FY2018: 35.7% 

- FY2019: 37.7% 

- FY2020: 42.8% 

- FY2021: 41.5% 

- FY2022: 40.7% 

- FY2023: 42.8% 

- FY2024: 42.4% 

- FY2025: 40.0% 

## Owner memo

Memo as of 2026-10-16T08:06:05.509Z.

### How it makes money

Operates in semiconductor equipment & materials; annual sales are USD 664.3 million.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/103145/000110465926019711/veco-20251231x10k.htm (filed 2026-02-25); FY2025: revenue 664294000; grossProfit 265409000; margin = grossProfit / revenue.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16); VECO.US: 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. It 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. The company's 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, it 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.

### Why customers stay

Margins ranged from 40% to 42.8% during 2023–25; it earns 6.7% on its capital.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-25); FY2023: grossProfit / revenue = 42.8%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-25); FY2024: grossProfit / revenue = 42.4%.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/103145/000110465926019711/veco-20251231x10k.htm (filed 2026-02-25); FY2025: grossProfit / revenue = 40%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-25); 10-year return on capital observations [[2016,-0.6616460882449099],[2017,-0.09418284526493273],[2018,-1.1544604314016509],[2019,-0.11907146964625058],[2020,0.074711340595047],[2021,0.19000489167945428],[2022,0.1488635746416421],[2023,0.11945784903832848],[2024,0.1273972211919774],[2025,0.05915896910058995]]; median 0.06693515484781848. ROIC follows the displayed moat series; financial companies use return on tangible equity.

### Where the cash goes

Paid dividends in 2 of 10 years.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-25); FY2020: growth capex 0; upkeep 6802000; owner earnings 15504000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-25); FY2021: growth capex 14585000; upkeep 26058000; owner earnings 26038000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.5601428681158307.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-25); FY2022: growth capex 0; upkeep 24604000; cash acquisitions 0; owner earnings 167983000. Growth capex plus acquisitions / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-25); FY2024: growth capex 0; upkeep 18113000; cash acquisitions 0; owner earnings 80744000. Growth capex plus acquisitions / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/103145/000110465926019711/veco-20251231x10k.htm (filed 2026-02-25); FY2025: growth capex 0; upkeep 18113000; cash acquisitions 0; owner earnings 37297000. Growth capex plus acquisitions / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-25); Dividend observations: [[2016,0],[2017,0],[2018,0],[2019,0],[2020,556000],[2021,5590000],[2022,0],[2023,0],[2024,0],[2025,0]]. Zero only counted when supported by a complete cash-flow statement.

### Are managers owners

Insiders own 2.2% of the company.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16); VECO.US SharesStats.PercentInsiders = 2.154 percentage points; cache date 2026-10-16.

### What the price says

The price assumes cash profits grow 21.2% yearly over ten years.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-25); Ten-year compound average after fade. Initial solved rate 0.29636892172916374. Price 45.16; FX 1; discount 0.1; same standard ten-year fade to terminal 0.03. FY2015 owner earnings/share -0.15135121533893614 → FY2025 0.6155229890748259. Closing-price date 2026-10-15.

## Monthly share-price history (USD per share)

- 2016-10: $21.70 per share

- 2016-11: $26.65 per share

- 2016-12: $29.15 per share

- 2017-01: $25.75 per share

- 2017-02: $27.35 per share

- 2017-03: $29.85 per share

- 2017-04: $33.00 per share

- 2017-05: $31.45 per share

- 2017-06: $27.85 per share

- 2017-07: $30.80 per share

- 2017-08: $18.90 per share

- 2017-09: $21.40 per share

- 2017-10: $18.05 per share

- 2017-11: $16.15 per share

- 2017-12: $14.85 per share

- 2018-01: $16.65 per share

- 2018-02: $18.15 per share

- 2018-03: $17.00 per share

- 2018-04: $15.45 per share

- 2018-05: $17.05 per share

- 2018-06: $14.25 per share

- 2018-07: $14.65 per share

- 2018-08: $12.00 per share

- 2018-09: $10.25 per share

- 2018-10: $9.51 per share

- 2018-11: $8.76 per share

- 2018-12: $7.41 per share

- 2019-01: $9.81 per share

- 2019-02: $11.42 per share

- 2019-03: $10.84 per share

- 2019-04: $12.18 per share

- 2019-05: $11.49 per share

- 2019-06: $12.22 per share

- 2019-07: $11.91 per share

- 2019-08: $9.26 per share

- 2019-09: $11.68 per share

- 2019-10: $13.64 per share

- 2019-11: $13.69 per share

- 2019-12: $14.69 per share

- 2020-01: $12.75 per share

- 2020-02: $13.39 per share

- 2020-03: $9.57 per share

- 2020-04: $10.93 per share

- 2020-05: $11.74 per share

- 2020-06: $13.49 per share

- 2020-07: $13.52 per share

- 2020-08: $11.89 per share

- 2020-09: $11.67 per share

- 2020-10: $12.73 per share

- 2020-11: $16.62 per share

- 2020-12: $17.36 per share

- 2021-01: $18.46 per share

- 2021-02: $21.50 per share

- 2021-03: $20.74 per share

- 2021-04: $23.01 per share

- 2021-05: $23.82 per share

- 2021-06: $24.04 per share

- 2021-07: $23.20 per share

- 2021-08: $22.79 per share

- 2021-09: $22.21 per share

- 2021-10: $24.29 per share

- 2021-11: $26.58 per share

- 2021-12: $28.47 per share

- 2022-01: $27.49 per share

- 2022-02: $28.57 per share

- 2022-03: $27.19 per share

- 2022-04: $22.92 per share

- 2022-05: $21.43 per share

- 2022-06: $19.40 per share

- 2022-07: $21.80 per share

- 2022-08: $21.14 per share

- 2022-09: $18.32 per share

- 2022-10: $18.23 per share

- 2022-11: $19.88 per share

- 2022-12: $18.58 per share

- 2023-01: $19.86 per share

- 2023-02: $21.27 per share

- 2023-03: $21.13 per share

- 2023-04: $18.42 per share

- 2023-05: $24.41 per share

- 2023-06: $25.68 per share

- 2023-07: $28.16 per share

- 2023-08: $29.19 per share

- 2023-09: $28.11 per share

- 2023-10: $23.94 per share

- 2023-11: $28.53 per share

- 2023-12: $31.03 per share

- 2024-01: $31.88 per share

- 2024-02: $36.21 per share

- 2024-03: $35.17 per share

- 2024-04: $35.34 per share

- 2024-05: $40.65 per share

- 2024-06: $46.71 per share

- 2024-07: $41.41 per share

- 2024-08: $35.49 per share

- 2024-09: $33.13 per share

- 2024-10: $28.78 per share

- 2024-11: $27.87 per share

- 2024-12: $26.80 per share

- 2025-01: $25.38 per share

- 2025-02: $22.24 per share

- 2025-03: $20.08 per share

- 2025-04: $18.70 per share

- 2025-05: $19.31 per share

- 2025-06: $20.32 per share

- 2025-07: $20.78 per share

- 2025-08: $24.52 per share

- 2025-09: $30.43 per share

- 2025-10: $28.75 per share

- 2025-11: $29.23 per share

- 2025-12: $28.58 per share

- 2026-01: $31.23 per share

- 2026-02: $30.56 per share

- 2026-03: $33.86 per share

- 2026-04: $49.85 per share

- 2026-05: $57.64 per share

- 2026-06: $75.80 per share

- 2026-07: $50.00 per share

- 2026-08: $44.30 per share

- 2026-09: $51.90 per share

- 2026-10: $45.16 per share

## Annual estimated value (USD per share)

- FY2022: low $8.09 per share, central $8.59 per share, high $9.27 per share

- FY2023: low $10.27 per share, central $11.21 per share, high $12.16 per share

- FY2024: low $11.18 per share, central $12.16 per share, high $13.27 per share

- FY2025: low $12.95 per share, central $13.88 per share, high $15.11 per share

Historical values use today's bond yield for every fiscal year

Historical values use today's FX rate into trading currency for every fiscal year

Historical values use current restated fundamentals and current commodity classification; they are not point-in-time estimates

## Sources

[Original 10-K filing](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/103145/000110465926019711/veco-20251231x10k.htm); period 2025-12-31, filed 2026-02-25.

Estimates depend on assumptions and are not guarantees or investment advice. Underlying data remains subject to its source licenses; public reading does not grant bulk redistribution rights.