Rakuten Securities Inc. Increases Position in ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML)

Rakuten Securities Inc. lifted its holdings in ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML) by 47.9% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 389 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after purchasing an additional 126 shares during the quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc.’s holdings in ASML were worth $324,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Quantbot Technologies LP increased its stake in ASML by 18.2% during the 1st quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 468 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $454,000 after buying an additional 72 shares in the last quarter. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. increased its stake in ASML by 17.9% during the 1st quarter. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. now owns 396 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $385,000 after buying an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its stake in ASML by 70.2% during the 1st quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 29,021 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $28,164,000 after buying an additional 11,974 shares in the last quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. increased its stake in ASML by 7.9% during the 1st quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 5,093 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $4,943,000 after buying an additional 371 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of ASML by 23.3% during the 1st quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 84,337 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $81,847,000 after purchasing an additional 15,958 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 26.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on ASML. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on ASML from $1,207.00 to $1,148.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on ASML from $1,000.00 to $790.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Morgan Stanley cut ASML from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, September 20th. Susquehanna decreased their price objective on ASML from $1,300.00 to $1,100.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 11th. Finally, Barclays upgraded ASML from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $970.60.

ASML Stock Up 0.3 %

NASDAQ:ASML opened at $671.31 on Tuesday. 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 stock’s fifty day moving average is $766.92 and its two-hundred day moving average is $887.91. ASML Holding has a 52 week low of $648.27 and a 52 week high of $1,110.09. The stock has a market capitalization of $264.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.51.

ASML (NASDAQ:ASML) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 15th. The semiconductor company reported $5.80 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.24 by $0.56. ASML had a return on equity of 47.61% and a net margin of 26.40%. The business had revenue of $8.21 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.66 billion. Research analysts anticipate that ASML Holding will post 20.77 EPS for the current year.

ASML Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 7th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, October 29th were given a dividend of $1.407 per share. This represents a $5.63 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.84%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, October 29th. ASML’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.21%.

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.