Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Acquires 849 Shares of ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML) by 14.9% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 6,553 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after acquiring an additional 849 shares during the quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in ASML were worth $5,460,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of ASML. Taurus Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of ASML during the third quarter worth approximately $16,994,000. Stockman Wealth Management Inc. increased its stake in ASML by 7.2% during the 3rd quarter. Stockman Wealth Management Inc. now owns 15,361 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $12,800,000 after acquiring an additional 1,032 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE increased its stake in ASML by 7.5% during the 3rd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 47,601 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $39,664,000 after acquiring an additional 3,321 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of ASML by 104.4% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 7,009 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $5,840,000 after acquiring an additional 3,580 shares during the period. Finally, Vantage Investment Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of ASML by 8.5% during the 3rd quarter. Vantage Investment Partners LLC now owns 34,767 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $28,970,000 after purchasing an additional 2,736 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 26.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on ASML from $1,207.00 to $1,148.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Susquehanna dropped 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 report on Friday, October 11th. Morgan Stanley lowered shares of ASML from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered their price objective on shares of ASML from $1,052.00 to $815.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Finally, Berenberg Bank raised ASML to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $970.60.

ASML Trading Down 1.8 %

NASDAQ ASML opened at $671.97 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $264.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.51. ASML Holding has a twelve month low of $645.45 and a twelve month high of $1,110.09. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 1.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The business’s fifty day moving average is $739.87 and its 200 day moving average is $870.11.

ASML (NASDAQ:ASML) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The semiconductor company reported $5.80 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.24 by $0.56. The firm had revenue of $8.21 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.66 billion. ASML had a return on equity of 47.61% and a net margin of 26.40%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that ASML Holding will post 20.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ASML Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 7th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, October 29th were given a $1.407 dividend. This represents a $5.63 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.84%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, October 29th. ASML’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 29.21%.

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.