ASML (NASDAQ:ASML) Shares Gap Up – Still a Buy?

ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML) gapped up prior to trading on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $673.41, but opened at $705.67. ASML shares last traded at $705.19, with a volume of 976,412 shares traded.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ASML has been the topic of several recent research reports. Berenberg Bank raised ASML to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Susquehanna cut their target price on ASML from $1,300.00 to $1,100.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Barclays upgraded ASML from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Sanford C. Bernstein cut their target price on ASML from $1,052.00 to $815.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on ASML from $1,000.00 to $790.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. 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’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, ASML has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $970.60.

ASML Price Performance

The firm has a market cap of $278.36 billion, a PE ratio of 37.10, a PEG ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.51. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $760.64 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $884.66. 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 released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The semiconductor company reported $5.80 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.24 by $0.56. The business had revenue of $8.21 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.66 billion. ASML had a return on equity of 47.61% and a net margin of 26.40%. Equities analysts predict that ASML Holding will post 20.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ASML Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 7th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, October 29th were issued a $1.407 dividend. This represents a $5.63 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.80%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, October 29th. ASML’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 29.21%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On ASML

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of ASML. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of ASML by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 3,186,222 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $2,654,921,000 after acquiring an additional 31,879 shares during the last quarter. Edgewood Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of ASML by 3.3% during the 3rd quarter. Edgewood Management LLC now owns 2,226,971 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,855,624,000 after acquiring an additional 70,776 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its stake in shares of ASML by 37.0% during 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. GQG Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of ASML by 21.6% during the 1st quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 1,657,878 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,608,921,000 after acquiring an additional 294,784 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its stake in shares of ASML by 18.9% during the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 1,220,210 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,184,173,000 after acquiring an additional 194,357 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.