Meridian Management Co. Buys New Shares in ASML Holding N.V. $ASML

Meridian Management Co. bought a new position in ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 912 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,814,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Steadview Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in ASML during the 2nd quarter valued at about $21,560,000. Chilton Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of ASML by 2.5% during the second quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 21,579 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $42,930,000 after purchasing an additional 530 shares during the period. Suncoast Equity Management purchased a new stake in ASML in the second quarter valued at approximately $15,776,000. Symphony Financial Ltd. Co. acquired a new position in ASML in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $342,000. Finally, DSM Capital Partners LLC raised its position in ASML by 35.6% during the 2nd quarter. DSM Capital Partners LLC now owns 4,449 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $8,851,000 after buying an additional 1,167 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 26.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of ASML from $2,200.00 to $2,500.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of ASML in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their target price on ASML from $1,971.00 to $2,623.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 6th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of ASML in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered ASML from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, July 3rd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have given a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,970.33.

ASML Trading Down 0.2%

Shares of ASML stock opened at $1,844.45 on Friday. ASML Holding N.V. has a 1-year low of $716.20 and a 1-year high of $1,999.96. The company has a market cap of $725.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 57.39, a PEG ratio of 0.92 and a beta of 1.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a current ratio of 1.33 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $1,781.65 and a 200-day simple moving average of $1,567.15.

ASML (NASDAQ:ASML) last released its quarterly earnings results on Sunday, June 28th. The semiconductor company reported $8.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $10.64 billion for the quarter. ASML had a net margin of 30.11% and a return on equity of 52.71%. On average, equities research analysts expect that ASML Holding N.V. will post 44.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ASML Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 5th. Investors of record on Tuesday, July 28th were given a dividend of $2.1507 per share. This represents a $8.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, July 28th. ASML’s dividend payout ratio is 22.62%.

About ASML

ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ: ASML) is a Dutch company that develops, manufactures and services advanced photolithography systems used to produce semiconductor chips. Headquartered in Veldhoven, Netherlands, ASML supplies capital equipment and associated software and services that enable semiconductor manufacturers to pattern the intricate circuits on silicon wafers. The company is widely recognized for its leadership in extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography as well as its deep ultraviolet (DUV) platforms used across multiple process nodes.

ASML’s product portfolio includes EUV and DUV lithography machines, light sources, imaging optics and control software, together with spare parts, upgrades and field services.