Freedom Investment Management Inc. Decreases Stake in ASML Holding N.V. $ASML

Freedom Investment Management Inc. lessened its stake in ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) by 5.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 2,890 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 175 shares during the quarter. Freedom Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in ASML were worth $2,316,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of ASML by 26.5% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 952,385 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $631,079,000 after buying an additional 199,740 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of ASML by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 905,708 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $600,175,000 after buying an additional 7,164 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in ASML by 101.0% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 731,271 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $484,562,000 after purchasing an additional 367,505 shares during the last quarter. Fayez Sarofim & Co lifted its stake in ASML by 2.7% during the first quarter. Fayez Sarofim & Co now owns 710,668 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $470,910,000 after purchasing an additional 18,516 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Manhattan CO. LLC. lifted its stake in ASML by 61.0% during the first quarter. First Manhattan CO. LLC. now owns 708,062 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $469,183,000 after purchasing an additional 268,172 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 26.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on ASML shares. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on ASML from $1,105.00 to $1,140.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “neutral” rating on shares of ASML in a research note on Monday, October 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of ASML in a research note on Friday, October 10th. HSBC restated a “buy” rating on shares of ASML in a research note on Friday, October 17th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res upgraded ASML to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,051.60.

ASML Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ ASML opened at $1,011.57 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.31, a quick ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. ASML Holding N.V. has a twelve month low of $578.51 and a twelve month high of $1,059.00. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $881.48 and a two-hundred day moving average of $781.44. The stock has a market cap of $397.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.17, a P/E/G ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.87.

ASML (NASDAQ:ASML) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 15th. The semiconductor company reported $6.41 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.27 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $8.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.99 billion. ASML had a return on equity of 47.74% and a net margin of 27.08%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $5.28 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that ASML Holding N.V. will post 25.17 earnings per share for the current year.

ASML Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, November 6th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 29th will be issued a $1.857 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 29th. This is an increase from ASML’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.86. This represents a $7.43 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. ASML’s dividend payout ratio is presently 25.56%.

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.