Veeco: Fiscal 3Q15 Financial Results

(in $ million)	3Q14	3Q15	9 mo. 14	9 mo. 15
Revenues	93.4	140.7	2793	370.5
*Growth*		17%		*12%*
Net income (loss)	(14.0)	5.3	(10.0)	(22.2)

Veeco Instruments Inc. announced financial results for its third fiscal quarter ended September 30, 2015.

In addition to the third quarter financial results, the company announced that its board of directors has authorized the repurchase of up to $100 million of the company’s outstanding common stock.

“Veeco’s third quarter results demonstrate solid operational execution with gross margin, adjusted EBITDA and earnings per share all above the mid-point of our guided ranges,” commented John R. Peeler, chairman and CEO.

“Business conditions deteriorated in the final weeks of the quarter and had a severe impact on our bookings performance. We recorded $52 million in bookings, which were well below our expectations. Customers delayed their MOCVD investments amid ongoing economic uncertainty in China and weak LED demand for TV display backlighting. We cannot accurately predict the duration of this MOCVD investment pause. However, demand for LED lighting remains healthy, which gives us confidence that investments will resume once industry conditions improve. We will continue to actively manage those things within our control through this period of uncertainty.

“We announced a $100 million share repurchase program, which underscores our confidence in longer term growth prospects and our commitment to enhance shareholder value. We believe our strong balance sheet provides us with the flexibility to execute share repurchases while continuing to invest in R&D and other opportunities to profitably grow our business.”

Guidance for Veeco’s 4Q15:

Revenue is expected to be in the range of $90 million to $110 million
Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be in the range of ($3) million to $5 million
GAAP earnings (loss) per share are expected to be in the range of ($0.38) to ($0.19)
Non-GAAP earnings (loss) per share are expected to be in the range of ($0.12) to $0.07
Based on above guidance, we expect fiscal year 2015 revenue to be in a range of $460 million to $480 million, reflecting annual growth of between 17% and 22%.

Comments

John Peeler, chairman and CEO:
"Unfortunately, business conditions deteriorated late in the quarter and had a severe impact on our bookings performance. We recorded bookings of $52 million in the third quarter, well below our expectations. The vast majority of the bookings shortfall came from our MOCVD business."

Shubham Maheshwari, CFO:
"Data storage made up the balance of Q3 bookings at 30%. Looking ahead, we expect demand in the data storage market to fluctuate from quarter-to-quarter.
(...) data storage market was relatively flat quarter-over-quarter on both dollars and percentage basis and represented 13% of revenue."