ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the thirteen brokerages that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, nine have issued a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $1,147.80.

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Barclays raised shares of ASML from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of ASML from $1,172.00 to $1,202.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. UBS Group cut ASML from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on ASML from $1,150.00 to $1,185.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, June 17th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut ASML from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, September 20th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On ASML

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Aveo Capital Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of ASML by 25.7% in the fourth quarter. Aveo Capital Partners LLC now owns 636 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $481,000 after purchasing an additional 130 shares during the last quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of ASML by 14.5% during the fourth quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 15,606 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $11,813,000 after acquiring an additional 1,972 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE raised its stake in shares of ASML by 18.7% during the fourth quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 32,103 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $24,300,000 after acquiring an additional 5,064 shares in the last quarter. Sepio Capital LP bought a new stake in shares of ASML during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $242,000. Finally, Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of ASML by 13.6% in the fourth quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 2,711 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $2,052,000 after purchasing an additional 324 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 26.07% of the company’s stock.

ASML Trading Down 1.3 %

Shares of ASML stock opened at $841.54 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.52, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The stock has a market capitalization of $332.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 1.49. ASML has a 12-month low of $563.99 and a 12-month high of $1,110.09. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $855.83 and its 200-day moving average price is $933.38.

ASML (NASDAQ:ASML) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 17th. The semiconductor company reported $4.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.87 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $6.24 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6 billion. ASML had a return on equity of 49.93% and a net margin of 26.50%. The company’s revenue was down 9.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $5.37 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that ASML will post 20.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ASML Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 7th. Investors of record on Monday, July 29th were paid a dividend of $1.8732 per share. This is a positive change from ASML’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.34. This represents a $7.49 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.89%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, July 29th. ASML’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 28.50%.

About ASML

ASML Holding N.V. develops, produces, markets, sells, and services advanced semiconductor equipment systems for chipmakers. It offers advanced semiconductor equipment systems, including lithography, metrology, and inspection systems. The company also provides extreme ultraviolet lithography systems; and deep ultraviolet lithography systems comprising immersion and dry lithography solutions to manufacture various range of semiconductor nodes and technologies.