Ameritas Advisory Services LLC Purchases 12 Shares of ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML)

Ameritas Advisory Services LLC raised its position in shares of ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML) by 1.4% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 844 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after buying an additional 12 shares during the quarter. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in ASML were worth $863,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in ASML. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of ASML by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 4,977,359 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $3,767,464,000 after acquiring an additional 105,196 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC raised its holdings in shares of ASML by 50.0% in the 1st quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 1,719,153 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,668,386,000 after acquiring an additional 572,996 shares during the last quarter. GQG Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of ASML by 21.6% in 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. Sands Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of ASML by 8.1% in the 4th quarter. Sands Capital Management LLC now owns 1,617,083 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,224,002,000 after acquiring an additional 121,847 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its holdings in shares of ASML by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 1,247,197 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $944,028,000 after acquiring an additional 32,623 shares during 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 recently weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of ASML from $1,172.00 to $1,202.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. Susquehanna lifted their target price on shares of ASML from $1,200.00 to $1,300.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 11th. Barclays raised shares of ASML from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of ASML from $1,150.00 to $1,185.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, June 17th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, ASML currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,147.80.

ASML Stock Performance

Shares of ASML stock traded down $0.42 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $887.71. 1,173,477 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,221,497. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $951.39 and a 200 day simple moving average of $954.68. The company has a current ratio of 1.52, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. ASML Holding has a 52-week low of $563.99 and a 52-week high of $1,110.09. The stock has a market capitalization of $350.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.34, a P/E/G ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.49.

ASML (NASDAQ:ASML) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 17th. The semiconductor company reported $4.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.87 by $0.14. ASML had a net margin of 26.50% and a return on equity of 49.93%. The company had revenue of $6.24 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $5.37 EPS. ASML’s quarterly revenue was down 9.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that ASML Holding will post 20.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ASML Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 7th. Investors of record on Monday, July 29th were paid a $1.8732 dividend. This represents a $7.49 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.84%. This is a positive change from ASML’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.34. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, July 29th. ASML’s payout ratio is currently 28.50%.

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.