Kovack Advisors Inc. Buys 28 Shares of ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML)

Kovack Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML) by 6.4% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 467 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after buying an additional 28 shares during the quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc.’s holdings in ASML were worth $389,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of ASML. Stockman Wealth Management Inc. increased its holdings in ASML by 7.2% in the 3rd quarter. Stockman Wealth Management Inc. now owns 15,361 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $12,800,000 after buying an additional 1,032 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE raised its holdings in ASML by 7.5% in the 3rd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 47,601 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $39,664,000 after buying an additional 3,321 shares during the last quarter. Vantage Investment Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of ASML by 8.5% in the third quarter. Vantage Investment Partners LLC now owns 34,767 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $28,970,000 after purchasing an additional 2,736 shares during the last quarter. KP Management LLC increased its stake in shares of ASML by 66.7% in the second quarter. KP Management LLC now owns 5,000 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $5,114,000 after buying an additional 2,000 shares during the period. Finally, CWA Asset Management Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of ASML in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,372,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 26.07% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ASML has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of ASML from $1,207.00 to $1,148.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on ASML from $1,000.00 to $790.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Susquehanna dropped their target price on shares of ASML from $1,300.00 to $1,100.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Morgan Stanley lowered shares of ASML from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Finally, Berenberg Bank upgraded ASML to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $970.60.

ASML Trading Up 2.9 %

Shares of ASML stock opened at $692.96 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 1.55 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The business has a 50-day moving average of $760.64 and a 200 day moving average of $884.66. The stock has a market capitalization of $272.62 billion, a PE ratio of 36.28, a P/E/G ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.51. ASML Holding has a 1-year low of $654.77 and a 1-year high of $1,110.09.

ASML (NASDAQ:ASML) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The semiconductor company reported $5.80 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.24 by $0.56. The company had revenue of $8.21 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.66 billion. ASML had a net margin of 26.40% and a return on equity of 47.61%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that ASML Holding will post 20.77 earnings per share for the current year.

ASML Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 7th. Investors of record on Tuesday, October 29th were paid a $1.407 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, October 29th. This represents a $5.63 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.81%. ASML’s payout ratio is presently 29.21%.

ASML Company Profile

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.