Financial Counselors Inc. Trims Stake in ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML)

Financial Counselors Inc. decreased its position in shares of ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML) by 1.2% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 6,584 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 79 shares during the period. Financial Counselors Inc.’s holdings in ASML were worth $6,734,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Hilltop National Bank boosted its position in shares of ASML by 1.0% in the 2nd quarter. Hilltop National Bank now owns 975 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $997,000 after purchasing an additional 10 shares in the last quarter. First PREMIER Bank boosted its position in shares of ASML by 4.2% in the 1st quarter. First PREMIER Bank now owns 273 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $265,000 after purchasing an additional 11 shares in the last quarter. Investment Partners LTD. boosted its position in shares of ASML by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. Investment Partners LTD. now owns 898 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $871,000 after purchasing an additional 11 shares in the last quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. boosted its position in shares of ASML by 1.1% in the 2nd quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 1,134 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,159,000 after purchasing an additional 12 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pure Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of ASML by 2.8% in the 2nd quarter. Pure Financial Advisors LLC now owns 444 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $454,000 after purchasing an additional 12 shares in the last quarter. 26.07% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently commented on ASML shares. Susquehanna boosted their price target on ASML from $1,200.00 to $1,300.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on ASML from $1,172.00 to $1,202.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. Barclays raised ASML from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on ASML from $1,150.00 to $1,185.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, June 17th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,147.80.

ASML Stock Performance

ASML stock opened at $903.87 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $356.66 billion, a PE ratio of 46.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 1.49. ASML Holding has a 12-month low of $563.99 and a 12-month high of $1,110.09. The company has a current ratio of 1.52, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $943.51 and its 200 day simple moving average is $954.42.

ASML (NASDAQ:ASML) last released its quarterly 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 analysts’ expectations of $6 billion. ASML had a return on equity of 49.93% and a net margin of 26.50%. The company’s revenue was down 9.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $5.37 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that ASML Holding will post 20.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ASML Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 7th. Stockholders of record on Monday, July 29th were issued a dividend of $1.8732 per share. This represents a $7.49 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.83%. This is a boost from ASML’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.34. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, July 29th. ASML’s dividend payout ratio is presently 28.55%.

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.