Auxier Asset Management Grows Stock Holdings in ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML)

Auxier Asset Management raised its stake in ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML) by 9.4% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 303 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after acquiring an additional 26 shares during the quarter. Auxier Asset Management’s holdings in ASML were worth $252,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of ASML by 1.0% in the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 3,186,222 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $2,654,921,000 after purchasing an additional 31,879 shares during the period. Edgewood Management LLC boosted its position in ASML by 3.3% in the 3rd quarter. Edgewood Management LLC now owns 2,226,971 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,855,624,000 after buying an additional 70,776 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its stake in shares of ASML by 37.0% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,757,049 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,464,061,000 after acquiring an additional 474,653 shares in the last quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV increased its position in shares of ASML by 4,379.6% during the second quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 889,875 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $910,102,000 after acquiring an additional 870,010 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of ASML by 0.3% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 817,709 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $836,300,000 after acquiring an additional 2,085 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 26.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on ASML from $1,000.00 to $790.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of ASML from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Susquehanna cut their price target on shares of ASML from $1,300.00 to $1,100.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of ASML from $1,207.00 to $1,148.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein cut their target price on shares of ASML from $1,052.00 to $815.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, ASML currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $970.60.

ASML Price Performance

ASML opened at $670.48 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 1.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $734.37 and its 200 day moving average price is $867.34. ASML Holding has a fifty-two week low of $645.45 and a fifty-two week high of $1,110.09. The firm has a market cap of $263.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.51.

ASML (NASDAQ:ASML) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The semiconductor company reported $5.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.24 by $0.56. ASML had a return on equity of 47.61% and a net margin of 26.40%. The business had revenue of $8.21 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.66 billion. As a group, 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 announced 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. This represents a $5.63 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.84%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, October 29th. ASML’s payout ratio is 29.21%.

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.