Forensic Analysis · Industrials / Manufacturing / Defense · as of Sep 25, 2026
Veeco Instruments Inc (VECO)
A forensic read on Veeco Instruments Inc built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
D · Weak — demands caution
Forensic grade
Safe
Financial health
9.1
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
112.3
P / E (ttm)
4.0%
ROE
$2.8B
Market cap
-7.4%
Revenue growth
This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (red flags, auditor quality, say on pay, board independence, going concern, valuation). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.
Veeco Instruments Inc earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 9.1, placing it in the Safe zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
3.3%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 3.3% in the latest fiscal year and slipping across FY2023–FY2025 from 6.5%. After-tax operating profit was $55M in FY2023 and $32M in FY2025, with operating income at 10.5% of revenue in FY2023, 9.3% in FY2024 and 5.4% in FY2025. The capital base behind it grew +15% across FY2023–FY2025, from $852M to $984M, while the return fell 3.2 points, so the dollars added over that window earned less than the 6.5% the older base was already earning. FY2024's operating profit carried a $28M asset write-down that alone took about 2.7 points off that year's return; FY2024 sits between the two ends of FY2023–FY2025, so the charge shapes the path between them without moving the change across it.
+6.2%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +13% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+6.2%/yr). The count is growing: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~6.2% shaved off per-share growth every year — total profit has to grow that much just to keep earnings-per-share flat, and a stake held since FY2023 has been diluted ~11%.
239d
FY2024→FY2025
Inventory days.Days inventory outstanding moved from 214 to 239 FY2024→FY2025 (against cost of goods sold; inventory +12% vs -3% in cost of sales). Inventory is building a little faster than sales — watch for markdowns.
6% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 6% of revenue and 70% of free cash flow in FY2025 — about $0.61 per diluted share. No cash left the business to pay it, which is why operating cash flow adds it back. Net of repurchases the diluted count still rose about 6.5% a year, and the rate is falling. Stock compensation is one source of that issuance; acquisition consideration, equity raises, convertibles and other employee plans also net into the count, and these figures do not separate them.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$664.3M
Revenue Growth YoY-7.4%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)-0.2%
Net Margin5.3%
Free Cash Flow$53.3M
Return on Equity4.0%
Debt / Equity0.29x
The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. Want the AI investment read on top — the 0–100 rating, thesis, bull-vs-bear, red flags and the 12-month scenario, written from Veeco Instruments Inc's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?