ING Groep NV Invests $489,000 in ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML)

ING Groep NV purchased a new stake in shares of ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 738 shares of the semiconductor company's stock, valued at approximately $489,000.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ASML. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of ASML by 70,115.5% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,400,800 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $9,282,120,000 after purchasing an additional 1,398,805 shares during the period. First Manhattan CO. LLC. raised its position in shares of ASML by 59.4% during the fourth quarter. First Manhattan CO. LLC. now owns 439,890 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $307,374,000 after buying an additional 163,945 shares during the last quarter. Hyperion Asset Management Ltd raised its position in shares of ASML by 63.9% during the fourth quarter. Hyperion Asset Management Ltd now owns 297,882 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $206,456,000 after buying an additional 116,121 shares during the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. grew its holdings in shares of ASML by 29.0% in the first quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 440,728 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $292,040,000 after purchasing an additional 99,199 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nan Shan Life Insurance Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in ASML by 3,694.5% during the fourth quarter. Nan Shan Life Insurance Co. Ltd. now owns 72,892 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $50,520,000 after buying an additional 70,971 shares during the period. 26.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

ASML Stock Up 3.2%

ASML stock traded up $22.16 during trading on Thursday, hitting $713.12. 1,721,976 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,560,348. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $758.52 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $725.09. The stock has a market capitalization of $280.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.76, a PEG ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 1.76. ASML Holding N.V. has a 52-week low of $578.51 and a 52-week high of $945.05. The company has a current ratio of 1.43, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21.

ASML (NASDAQ:ASML - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 16th. The semiconductor company reported $4.55 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $5.94 by ($1.39). The firm had revenue of $8.94 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $8.72 billion. ASML had a net margin of 26.95% and a return on equity of 49.47%. ASML's quarterly revenue was up 23.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $4.01 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that ASML Holding N.V. will post 25.17 EPS for the current year.

ASML Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 6th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, July 29th were given a dividend of $1.856 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, July 29th. This is a positive change from ASML's previous quarterly dividend of $1.64. This represents a $7.42 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.0%. ASML's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.21%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on ASML. Jefferies Financial Group lowered shares of ASML from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. Barclays reiterated an "equal weight" rating on shares of ASML in a report on Tuesday, June 3rd. Citigroup restated a "buy" rating on shares of ASML in a research note on Monday, May 19th. Erste Group Bank restated a "hold" rating on shares of ASML in a research note on Wednesday, July 23rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on ASML from $840.00 to $890.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $923.80.

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.