Old Port Advisors Acquires 32 Shares of ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML)

Old Port Advisors boosted its position in ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML) by 9.2% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 381 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after purchasing an additional 32 shares during the period. Old Port Advisors’ holdings in ASML were worth $370,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its stake in ASML by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 4,977,359 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $3,767,464,000 after purchasing an additional 105,196 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC boosted its holdings in ASML by 50.0% during the 1st quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 1,719,153 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,668,386,000 after acquiring an additional 572,996 shares during the period. GQG Partners LLC boosted its holdings in ASML by 21.6% during the 1st quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 1,657,878 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,608,921,000 after acquiring an additional 294,784 shares during the period. Sands Capital Management LLC lifted 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 buying an additional 121,847 shares during the period. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC lifted 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 buying an additional 32,623 shares during the period. 26.07% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on ASML from $1,172.00 to $1,202.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Evercore ISI began coverage on ASML in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. They issued an “outperform” rating on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered their price target on ASML from $1,072.00 to $1,052.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Barclays upgraded ASML from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on ASML from $1,150.00 to $1,185.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, June 17th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,147.80.

ASML Price Performance

ASML stock traded down $74.36 on Friday, reaching $809.35. The company had a trading volume of 3,624,112 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,681,006. ASML Holding has a 1 year low of $563.99 and a 1 year high of $1,110.09. The company has a market cap of $319.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.34, a PEG ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.49. The company’s fifty day moving average is $997.56 and its 200 day moving average is $950.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 1.52.

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

ASML Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 7th. Stockholders of record on Monday, July 29th will be issued a dividend of $1.8732 per share. This represents a $7.49 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.93%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, July 29th. This is a boost from ASML’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.34. ASML’s payout ratio is 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.