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Veeco Instruments has released its financial results for the third quarter 2010. The equipment manufacturer reported strong numbers for the period ended September 30, with solar and LED sales resulting in total bookings of over US$243 million.

John Peeler, Veeco's Chief Executive Officer said, "Veeco reported a milestone quarter in Q3 -- including record levels of revenue of US$277 million, gross margin of 49%, and EBITA of US$96 million.
In addition, on October 7th we completed the sale of our Metrology business to Bruker Corporation, creating a new Veeco focused on growth opportunities in our LED & Solar and Data Storage Process Equipment businesses...quoting activity is also picking up for our CIGS solar deposition systems as we make progress advancing these tools' process capabilities for high-efficiency/low cost solar cells. We generated a record US$79 million in cash from operations during the quarter and are in the best financial position in our history."

"Veeco's third quarter bookings totaled US$278 million," continued Peeler, "with another very strong quarter in LED and so

lar of US$243 million, primarily MOCVD systems. Orders for MOCVD tools were placed by fifteen customers during the quarter, with strength continuing in China and additional account penetration in Taiwan."
Furthermore, on August 24th, Veeco announced that its board of directors had authorized the repurchase of up to US$200 million of Veeco's common stock through August 2011. During the third quarter, Veeco purchased 930,000 shares of its stock at an average price of US$34 per share, for a total of approximately US$32 million.

Veeco's fourth quarter 2010 revenue is forecasted to be between US$285 and US$320 million. Earnings per share are currently forecasted to be between US$1.96 to US$2.35 on a GAAP basis and US$1.46 to US$1.74 on a non-GAAP basis.