Spear Holdings RSC Ltd Acquires Shares of 110,835 ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML)

Spear Holdings RSC Ltd bought a new position in ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML) in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 110,835 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $92,006,000. ASML comprises about 92.2% of Spear Holdings RSC Ltd’s investment portfolio, making the stock its biggest holding.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. KP Management LLC grew its holdings in ASML by 66.7% during the 2nd quarter. KP Management LLC now owns 5,000 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $5,114,000 after acquiring an additional 2,000 shares during the last quarter. Harvard Management Co. Inc. lifted its holdings in ASML by 239.8% during the 2nd quarter. Harvard Management Co. Inc. now owns 93,519 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $95,645,000 after buying an additional 66,000 shares during the period. Salem Investment Counselors Inc. grew its position in shares of ASML by 41.1% in the 1st quarter. Salem Investment Counselors Inc. now owns 3,457 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $3,355,000 after buying an additional 1,007 shares during the last quarter. Point72 DIFC Ltd increased its stake in shares of ASML by 122.1% in the second quarter. Point72 DIFC Ltd now owns 6,415 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $6,560,000 after buying an additional 3,527 shares during the period. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers raised its position in shares of ASML by 169.4% during the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 23,351 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $22,661,000 after acquiring an additional 14,682 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 26.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ASML has been the topic of several analyst reports. Barclays upgraded ASML from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of ASML from $1,207.00 to $1,148.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Susquehanna lowered their target price on shares of 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. UBS Group cut shares of ASML from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on ASML from $1,000.00 to $790.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, ASML currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,018.00.

ASML Price Performance

ASML stock opened at $700.60 on Friday. ASML Holding has a 1 year low of $573.86 and a 1 year high of $1,110.09. The stock has a market capitalization of $276.45 billion, a PE ratio of 35.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 1.48. The company’s 50-day moving average is $837.18 and its 200-day moving average is $918.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 1.52 and a quick ratio of 0.84.

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

ASML Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, November 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, October 29th will be given a $1.407 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, October 29th. This represents a $5.63 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.80%. ASML’s payout ratio is 28.50%.

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.