Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC Cuts Stock Position in ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML)

Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC lessened its stake in shares of ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML) by 7.7% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 443 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 37 shares during the quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in ASML were worth $453,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in ASML by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 4,977,359 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $3,767,464,000 after purchasing an additional 105,196 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its position in ASML by 50.0% during the first quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 1,719,153 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,668,386,000 after buying an additional 572,996 shares in the last quarter. GQG Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of ASML by 21.6% in the first quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 1,657,878 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,608,921,000 after buying an additional 294,784 shares in the last quarter. Sands Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of ASML by 8.1% in the fourth quarter. Sands Capital Management LLC now owns 1,617,083 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,224,002,000 after buying an additional 121,847 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC grew its stake in shares of ASML by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 1,247,197 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $944,028,000 after buying an additional 32,623 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 26.07% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on ASML. Evercore ISI began coverage on ASML in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. They issued an “outperform” rating for the company. Susquehanna increased their target price on ASML from $1,200.00 to $1,300.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on ASML from $1,172.00 to $1,202.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered their target price on ASML from $1,072.00 to $1,052.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on ASML from $1,150.00 to $1,185.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, June 17th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, ASML has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,147.80.

ASML Stock Performance

NASDAQ:ASML traded down $6.66 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $836.35. 1,512,519 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,237,485. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 1.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $991.87 and a 200-day simple moving average of $953.14. ASML Holding has a 52 week low of $563.99 and a 52 week high of $1,110.09. The stock has a market capitalization of $330.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.18, a P/E/G ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.49.

ASML (NASDAQ:ASML) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 17th. The semiconductor company reported $4.01 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.87 by $0.14. ASML had a return on equity of 49.93% and a net margin of 26.50%. The company had revenue of $6.24 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $5.37 EPS. ASML’s quarterly revenue was down 9.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that ASML Holding will post 20.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ASML Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 7th. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 29th will be issued a dividend of $1.8732 per share. This represents a $7.49 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.90%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, July 29th. This is an increase from ASML’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.34. ASML’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 28.50%.

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.