ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML) Shares Sold by Essex Savings Bank

Essex Savings Bank lowered its position in ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML) by 1.9% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 884 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 17 shares during the quarter. Essex Savings Bank’s holdings in ASML were worth $737,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV increased its position in shares of ASML by 4,379.6% in the 2nd quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 889,875 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $910,102,000 after purchasing an additional 870,010 shares during the last quarter. Fayez Sarofim & Co bought a new stake in shares of ASML in the 1st quarter worth about $542,710,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of ASML by 94,079.7% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 491,618 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $4,096,410,000 after purchasing an additional 491,096 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its position in shares of ASML by 37.0% in the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,757,049 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,464,061,000 after purchasing an additional 474,653 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GQG Partners LLC increased its position in shares of ASML by 21.6% in the 1st quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 1,657,878 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,608,921,000 after purchasing an additional 294,784 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 26.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on ASML shares. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of ASML from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Berenberg Bank raised shares of ASML to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. 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. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of ASML from $1,000.00 to $790.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, UBS Group cut shares of ASML from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $970.60.

ASML Trading Down 1.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ:ASML opened at $669.47 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $771.58 and a 200-day moving average of $889.64. The firm has a market cap of $263.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.05, a P/E/G ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 1.51. ASML Holding has a twelve month low of $633.85 and a twelve month high of $1,110.09. The company has a current ratio of 1.55, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29.

ASML (NASDAQ:ASML) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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 net margin of 26.40% and a return on equity of 47.61%. The company had revenue of $8.21 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.66 billion. As a group, analysts anticipate that ASML Holding will post 20.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ASML Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 7th. Investors of record on Tuesday, October 29th were paid a dividend of $1.407 per share. This represents a $5.63 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.84%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, October 29th. ASML’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.