Auxier Asset Management Buys New Holdings in ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML)

Auxier Asset Management bought a new position in ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 277 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $283,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of ASML by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 4,967,958 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $3,760,348,000 after acquiring an additional 95,795 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its stake in ASML by 50.0% during the first quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 1,719,153 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,668,386,000 after purchasing an additional 572,996 shares during the period. GQG Partners LLC boosted its holdings in ASML by 21.6% during the first quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 1,657,878 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,608,921,000 after purchasing an additional 294,784 shares in the last quarter. Sands Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of ASML by 8.1% in the 4th quarter. Sands Capital Management LLC now owns 1,617,083 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,224,002,000 after buying an additional 121,847 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in shares of ASML by 15.4% during the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,282,396 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,311,545,000 after buying an additional 170,992 shares during the period. 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. Morgan Stanley lowered ASML from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday. Barclays upgraded shares of ASML from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Susquehanna upped their price objective on shares of ASML from $1,200.00 to $1,300.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 11th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on ASML from $1,150.00 to $1,185.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, June 17th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on ASML from $1,172.00 to $1,202.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $1,147.80.

ASML Trading Down 4.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ ASML opened at $795.28 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $870.91 and its 200 day simple moving average is $939.86. The firm has a market capitalization of $313.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.62, a P/E/G ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 1.49. ASML Holding has a fifty-two week low of $563.99 and a fifty-two week high of $1,110.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 1.52 and a quick ratio of 0.84.

ASML (NASDAQ:ASML) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 17th. The semiconductor company reported $4.01 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.87 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $6.24 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6 billion. ASML had a return on equity of 49.93% and a net margin of 26.50%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 9.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $5.37 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that ASML Holding will post 20.38 EPS for the current year.

ASML Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 7th. Investors of record on Monday, July 29th were given a $1.8732 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, July 29th. This represents a $7.49 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.94%. This is a boost from ASML’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.34. ASML’s dividend payout ratio is currently 28.50%.

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.