I bought a few shares of Veeco Instruments
It's not all bad news; Veeco did beat expectations on both revenue and earnings. Fourth-quarter revenues were $112.8 million, compared to $103 million a year ago, while earnings came in at $2.7 million (nine cents per share). For the full year, Veeco lost $897,000 on $410 million in sales.
But unlike peer FEI
Trends look promising for each of Veeco's major markets: data storage, semiconductors, scientific research, and high-brightness LEDs. The latter sector suffered in 2005, but Veeco claims it's improving, as high-brightness LEDs made by firms like Cree
Another favorable trend is the transition to perpendicular recording among hard drive makers like Seagate
Given these positive trends, I believe Veeco's forecast that new products will drive strong growth later this year. While I don't see anything on the horizon that gives this stock 10-bagger potential, a double by the end of the decade would likely beat the market.
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Dan Bloom owns shares of Veeco and Seagate. He welcomes your feedback at [email protected]. The Fool has a disclosure policy.