First Affirmative Financial Network Buys 212 Shares of ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML)

First Affirmative Financial Network lifted its stake in shares of ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML) by 22.7% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,147 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after acquiring an additional 212 shares during the quarter. First Affirmative Financial Network’s holdings in ASML were worth $956,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Burford Brothers Inc. bought a new stake in shares of ASML during the 4th quarter valued at $761,000. Sunpointe LLC bought a new stake in ASML during the fourth quarter valued at about $908,000. V Square Quantitative Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of ASML in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,014,000. Garde Capital Inc. bought a new position in shares of ASML in the fourth quarter worth about $112,000. Finally, Scarborough Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of ASML during the fourth quarter worth about $95,000. 26.07% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ASML has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group downgraded ASML from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of ASML from $1,185.00 to $1,000.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Morgan Stanley cut shares of ASML from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Berenberg Bank upgraded ASML to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Barclays upgraded ASML from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $1,071.80.

ASML Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of ASML stock opened at $840.69 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $330.74 billion, a PE ratio of 45.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 1.48. 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 stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $844.97 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $924.59. ASML Holding has a 1 year low of $573.86 and a 1 year high of $1,110.09.

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 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 company had revenue of $6.24 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $5.37 earnings per share. ASML’s revenue was down 9.5% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that ASML Holding will post 20.38 earnings per share for the current year.

ASML Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 7th. Investors of record on Monday, July 29th were given a $1.8732 dividend. This is a positive change from ASML’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.34. This represents a $7.49 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.89%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, July 29th. ASML’s dividend payout ratio is 30.17%.

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.