Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. Sells 67 Shares of ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML)

Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. lowered its stake in ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML) by 9.0% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 678 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 67 shares during the quarter. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in ASML were worth $491,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in ASML. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in ASML by 364.6% during the 1st quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,270,364 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $195,650,000 after purchasing an additional 996,949 shares in the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in ASML during the 4th quarter worth about $307,620,000. 1832 Asset Management L.P. increased its holdings in ASML by 31,845.9% during the 4th quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 340,543 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $186,073,000 after purchasing an additional 339,477 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its holdings in ASML by 2,536.7% during the 1st quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 288,507 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $196,339,000 after purchasing an additional 277,565 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its holdings in ASML by 27.5% during the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 981,659 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $536,378,000 after purchasing an additional 211,792 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 18.94% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on ASML shares. StockNews.com started coverage on ASML in a report on Thursday, October 5th. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on ASML in a research report on Thursday, September 14th. They issued an “outperform” rating on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on ASML from $732.00 to $726.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 19th. Raymond James initiated coverage on ASML in a research report on Tuesday, October 17th. They issued a “strong-buy” rating and a $725.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded ASML from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $810.00 to $785.00 in a research report on Friday, July 28th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $757.29.

ASML Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ ASML opened at $694.31 on Tuesday. ASML Holding has a twelve month low of $529.01 and a twelve month high of $771.98. The company has a market cap of $273.97 billion, a PE ratio of 33.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.46. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $610.16 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $663.77. The company has a quick ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 1.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38.

ASML (NASDAQ:ASML) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 18th. The semiconductor company reported $5.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.00 by $0.23. ASML had a return on equity of 73.29% and a net margin of 28.44%. The company had revenue of $7.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.49 billion. On average, analysts predict that ASML Holding will post 20.62 EPS for the current year.

ASML Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 10th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 2nd were paid a $1.5337 dividend. This represents a $6.13 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.88%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 1st. ASML’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 25.23%.

About ASML

ASML Holding N.V. develops, produces, markets, sells, and services advanced semiconductor equipment systems consisting of lithography, metrology, and inspection systems for memory and logic chipmakers. The company 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.