Ascent Group LLC Increases Position in ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML)

Ascent Group LLC increased its stake in shares of ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML) by 1.6% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 4,550 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after acquiring an additional 73 shares during the period. Ascent Group LLC’s holdings in ASML were worth $3,791,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Fairway Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in ASML in the third quarter valued at $25,000. Resources Management Corp CT ADV acquired a new stake in ASML in the 2nd quarter valued at about $26,000. Milestone Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in ASML during the 3rd quarter valued at about $28,000. Triad Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in ASML during the second quarter worth about $31,000. Finally, First Community Trust NA purchased a new stake in shares of ASML in the second quarter valued at about $34,000. 26.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on ASML. Susquehanna dropped their price objective on shares of ASML from $1,300.00 to $1,100.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on ASML from $1,000.00 to $790.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Morgan Stanley downgraded ASML from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Sanford C. Bernstein dropped their price objective on ASML from $815.00 to $767.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Finally, UBS Group lowered shares of ASML from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. Three equities research 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 MarketBeat, ASML currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $961.00.

ASML Trading Up 2.4 %

Shares of ASML stock opened at $686.61 on Monday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $732.20 and its 200-day simple moving average is $864.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 1.55 and a quick ratio of 0.84. ASML Holding has a 1-year low of $645.45 and a 1-year high of $1,110.09. The firm has a market cap of $270.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.95, a PEG ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 1.51.

ASML (NASDAQ:ASML) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The semiconductor company reported $5.80 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.24 by $0.56. The company had revenue of $8.21 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.66 billion. ASML had a net margin of 26.40% and a return on equity of 47.61%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that ASML Holding will post 20.68 EPS for the current year.

ASML Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 7th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, October 29th were paid a dividend of $1.407 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, October 29th. This represents a $5.63 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.82%. ASML’s dividend payout ratio is presently 29.21%.

ASML 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.