ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML) Receives $970.60 Consensus Target Price from Brokerages

ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML) has received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the fourteen research firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, nine have given a buy recommendation and two have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $970.60.

ASML has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Susquehanna lowered their price target on shares of ASML from $1,300.00 to $1,100.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 11th. Morgan Stanley lowered shares of ASML from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, September 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on ASML from $1,207.00 to $1,148.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Barclays upgraded ASML from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on ASML from $1,000.00 to $790.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 17th.

ASML Price Performance

Shares of ASML stock opened at $658.63 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $259.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.51. The company has a fifty day moving average of $756.70 and a 200-day moving average of $881.59. ASML has a 52-week low of $654.77 and a 52-week high of $1,110.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 1.55.

ASML (NASDAQ:ASML) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 15th. The semiconductor company reported $5.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.24 by $0.56. ASML had a return on equity of 47.61% and a net margin of 26.40%. The firm had revenue of $8.21 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.66 billion. Equities research analysts expect that ASML will post 20.77 EPS for the current year.

ASML Cuts Dividend

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

Institutional Trading of ASML

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of ASML. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV lifted its position in ASML by 4,379.6% during the 2nd quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 889,875 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $910,102,000 after acquiring an additional 870,010 shares during the period. Fayez Sarofim & Co purchased a new position in shares of ASML during the first quarter valued at approximately $542,710,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of ASML by 94,079.7% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 491,618 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $4,096,410,000 after purchasing an additional 491,096 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its stake in shares of ASML by 37.0% in 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 buying an additional 474,653 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GQG Partners LLC increased its position in ASML by 21.6% during 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 buying an additional 294,784 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 26.07% of the company’s stock.

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.