Lafayette Investments Inc. Grows Stake in ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML)

Lafayette Investments Inc. boosted its position in shares of ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML) by 27.0% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 517 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after buying an additional 110 shares during the period. Lafayette Investments Inc.’s holdings in ASML were worth $431,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Resources Management Corp CT ADV acquired a new position in shares of ASML during the second quarter worth $26,000. WD Rutherford LLC purchased a new position in ASML during the 1st quarter worth approximately $29,000. Triad Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in ASML during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $31,000. First Community Trust NA acquired a new position in ASML during the second quarter valued at $34,000. Finally, POM Investment Strategies LLC purchased a new stake in ASML in the second quarter valued at $36,000. Institutional investors own 26.07% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Berenberg Bank upgraded ASML to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Barclays raised shares of ASML from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on ASML from $1,207.00 to $1,148.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Sanford C. Bernstein reduced their target price on ASML from $1,052.00 to $815.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. Finally, UBS Group cut ASML from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, ASML presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $970.60.

ASML Stock Performance

NASDAQ:ASML traded up $5.19 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $713.81. 359,221 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,384,199. The stock has a market capitalization of $281.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.19, a P/E/G ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 1.48. ASML Holding has a 1 year low of $581.57 and a 1 year high of $1,110.09. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $825.27 and a 200-day simple moving average of $910.74. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 1.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

ASML Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, November 7th. Investors of record on Tuesday, October 29th will be paid a $1.407 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, October 29th. This represents a $5.63 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.79%. ASML’s payout ratio is 28.70%.

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.