Meridian Wealth Management LLC Purchases 203 Shares of ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML)

Meridian Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML) by 25.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 999 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after purchasing an additional 203 shares during the period. Meridian Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in ASML were worth $832,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV raised its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 870,010 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of ASML by 94,079.7% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 491,618 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $4,096,410,000 after acquiring an additional 491,096 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 474,653 shares during the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors lifted its holdings in shares of ASML by 213.5% in the 1st quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 289,944 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $281,382,000 after acquiring an additional 197,453 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its stake in shares of ASML by 18.9% in the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 1,220,210 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,184,173,000 after purchasing an additional 194,357 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 26.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on ASML. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered their price target on shares of ASML from $1,052.00 to $815.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 21st. UBS Group lowered ASML from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on ASML from $1,000.00 to $790.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Morgan Stanley cut ASML from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Finally, Berenberg Bank raised ASML to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, ASML currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $970.60.

ASML Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ ASML opened at $672.88 on Friday. ASML Holding has a 1 year low of $645.45 and a 1 year high of $1,110.09. The stock has a market capitalization of $264.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.23, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.51. The company’s 50-day moving average is $744.92 and its 200 day moving average is $873.81. 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 (NASDAQ:ASML) last posted its 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. 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 the consensus estimate of $7.66 billion. On average, sell-side analysts expect that ASML Holding will post 20.68 earnings per share for the current year.

ASML Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 7th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, October 29th were given a dividend of $1.407 per share. This represents a $5.63 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.84%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, October 29th. ASML’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.