ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML) Stake Raised by Principal Financial Group Inc.

Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML) by 104.4% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 7,009 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,580 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in ASML were worth $5,840,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of ASML. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its position in ASML by 37.0% during the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,757,049 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,464,061,000 after purchasing an additional 474,653 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its holdings in shares of ASML by 18.9% during the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 1,220,210 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,184,173,000 after buying an additional 194,357 shares in the last quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV raised its position in ASML by 4,379.6% during the second quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 889,875 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $910,102,000 after buying an additional 870,010 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in ASML by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 817,709 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $836,300,000 after acquiring an additional 2,085 shares during the period. Finally, Lone Pine Capital LLC grew its stake in ASML by 19.0% during the 2nd quarter. Lone Pine Capital LLC now owns 587,891 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $601,254,000 after acquiring an additional 93,851 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 26.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ASML has been the subject of a number of research reports. UBS Group lowered shares of ASML from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Barclays raised ASML from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Morgan Stanley cut ASML from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Susquehanna cut their price objective 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. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their target price on shares of ASML from $1,052.00 to $815.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $970.60.

ASML Price Performance

NASDAQ:ASML opened at $658.43 on Thursday. 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 stock has a market cap of $259.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.47, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.51. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $750.39 and a 200 day moving average price of $877.18. ASML Holding has a one year low of $645.45 and a one year high of $1,110.09.

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

ASML Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 7th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, October 29th were issued a $1.407 dividend. This represents a $5.63 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, October 29th. ASML’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.21%.

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.