ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML) Shares Acquired by Empirical Asset Management LLC

Empirical Asset Management LLC increased its stake in ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML) by 2,825.3% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 84,191 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after purchasing an additional 81,313 shares during the quarter. ASML comprises about 1.7% of Empirical Asset Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 12th largest position. Empirical Asset Management LLC’s holdings in ASML were worth $58,351,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale grew its stake in ASML by 10.1% during the 2nd quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 261 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $270,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI acquired a new stake in ASML during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $201,000. Moors & Cabot Inc. grew its stake in ASML by 10.0% during the 2nd quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 1,119 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,144,000 after purchasing an additional 102 shares in the last quarter. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT grew its stake in ASML by 74.7% during the 2nd quarter. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT now owns 3,526 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $3,606,000 after purchasing an additional 1,508 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Blair William & Co. IL grew its stake in ASML by 11.8% during the 2nd quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 16,181 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $16,549,000 after purchasing an additional 1,711 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 26.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on ASML shares. Susquehanna lowered their price objective on ASML from $1,300.00 to $1,100.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Berenberg Bank raised ASML to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on ASML from $790.00 to $860.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday. BNP Paribas began coverage on ASML in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. They set an “outperform” rating and a $858.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Morgan Stanley downgraded ASML from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, September 20th. Three 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 stock. According to MarketBeat.com, ASML has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $955.50.

ASML Stock Up 3.3 %

Shares of ASML stock opened at $750.28 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $703.52 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $801.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 1.55 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The company has a market capitalization of $295.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.28, a PEG ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 1.47. ASML Holding has a 1-year low of $645.45 and a 1-year high of $1,110.09.

ASML (NASDAQ:ASML) last announced its 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 firm had revenue of $8.21 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.66 billion. ASML had a return on equity of 47.61% and a net margin of 26.40%. As a group, research analysts forecast that ASML Holding will post 20.57 EPS for the current year.

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.