Cetera Advisors LLC Grows Stake in ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML)

Cetera Advisors LLC grew its holdings in ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML) by 78.5% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 9,452 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after buying an additional 4,156 shares during the quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC’s holdings in ASML were worth $9,173,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in ASML by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 4,977,359 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $3,767,464,000 after buying an additional 105,196 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its holdings in ASML by 50.0% in the 1st quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 1,719,153 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,668,386,000 after buying an additional 572,996 shares during the period. GQG Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of ASML by 21.6% in the 1st 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 during the period. Sands Capital Management LLC lifted its stake 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 valued at $1,224,002,000 after purchasing an additional 121,847 shares during the period. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC lifted its stake in shares of ASML by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 1,247,197 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $944,028,000 after purchasing an additional 32,623 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 26.07% of the company’s stock.

ASML Price Performance

NASDAQ ASML opened at $809.35 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $997.56 and its 200 day moving average is $950.33. 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 market capitalization of $319.36 billion, a PE ratio of 41.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 1.52.

ASML (NASDAQ:ASML) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 17th. The semiconductor company reported $4.01 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.87 by $0.14. ASML had a return on equity of 49.93% and a net margin of 26.50%. The business had revenue of $6.24 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $5.37 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 9.5% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that ASML Holding will post 20.3 earnings per share for the current year.

ASML Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 7th. Stockholders of record on Monday, July 29th will be issued a $1.8732 dividend. This represents a $7.49 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.93%. This is a boost from ASML’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.34. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, July 29th. ASML’s payout ratio is 28.50%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on ASML. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on ASML from $1,172.00 to $1,202.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Susquehanna raised their target price on ASML from $1,200.00 to $1,300.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 11th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on ASML from $1,150.00 to $1,185.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, June 17th. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered their target price on ASML from $1,072.00 to $1,052.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Finally, Barclays raised ASML from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,147.80.

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.