ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML) Short Interest Update

ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest in the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,120,000 shares, an increase of 73.2% from the August 31st total of 646,600 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,470,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 0.8 days. Approximately 0.3% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ASML

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of ASML by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 4,967,958 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $3,760,348,000 after purchasing an additional 95,795 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC boosted its holdings in ASML by 50.0% in the first quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 1,719,153 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,668,386,000 after purchasing an additional 572,996 shares during the last quarter. GQG Partners LLC grew its position in 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 purchasing an additional 294,784 shares during the period. Sands Capital Management LLC raised its stake in ASML by 8.1% during the 4th quarter. Sands Capital Management LLC now owns 1,617,083 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,224,002,000 after buying an additional 121,847 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its holdings in shares of ASML by 15.4% during the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,282,396 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,311,545,000 after buying an additional 170,992 shares during the period. 26.07% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on ASML from $1,172.00 to $1,202.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of ASML from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Barclays upgraded ASML from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on ASML from $1,150.00 to $1,185.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, June 17th. Finally, UBS Group downgraded ASML from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, ASML currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,147.80.

ASML Stock Down 1.3 %

ASML traded down $10.90 on Friday, hitting $841.54. The company had a trading volume of 1,038,367 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,262,185. ASML has a 52-week low of $563.99 and a 52-week high of $1,110.09. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $855.83 and a 200-day simple moving average of $933.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 1.52 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The firm has a market capitalization of $331.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.98, a P/E/G ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 1.49.

ASML (NASDAQ:ASML) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 17th. The semiconductor company reported $4.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.87 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $6.24 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6 billion. ASML had a return on equity of 49.93% and a net margin of 26.50%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 9.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $5.37 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that ASML will post 20.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ASML Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 7th. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 29th were paid a dividend of $1.8732 per share. This is a boost from ASML’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.34. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, July 29th. This represents a $7.49 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.89%. ASML’s payout ratio is presently 28.55%.

About ASML

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.