ASML Holding N.V. $ASML Position Reduced by NFJ Investment Group LLC

Key Points

• NFJ Investment Group LLC reduced its stake in ASML Holding N.V. by 41.4%, selling 885 shares to hold a total of 1,253 shares valued at $830,000.
• ASML's stock has seen various analyst rating changes, with Jefferies Financial Group and DZ Bank downgrading it, while New Street Research and UBS Group upgraded their ratings recently.
• ASML announced a quarterly dividend increase to $1.856 per share, resulting in an annualized dividend of $7.42 and a yield of 0.9%.

NFJ Investment Group LLC decreased its stake in ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML - Free Report) by 41.4% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,253 shares of the semiconductor company's stock after selling 885 shares during the period. NFJ Investment Group LLC's holdings in ASML were worth $830,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of ASML by 70,115.5% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,400,800 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $9,282,120,000 after purchasing an additional 1,398,805 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its position in ASML by 26.5% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 952,385 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $631,079,000 after acquiring an additional 199,740 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in ASML by 0.8% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 905,708 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $600,175,000 after acquiring an additional 7,164 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in ASML by 101.0% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 731,271 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $484,562,000 after acquiring an additional 367,505 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fayez Sarofim & Co raised its position in ASML by 2.7% during the first quarter. Fayez Sarofim & Co now owns 710,668 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $470,910,000 after acquiring an additional 18,516 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 analysts have issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of ASML from $840.00 to $890.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Erste Group Bank restated a "hold" rating on shares of ASML in a research report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Sanford C. Bernstein started coverage on shares of ASML in a research note on Tuesday, June 17th. They issued a "market perform" rating and a $806.00 target price for the company. DZ Bank downgraded shares of ASML from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded shares of ASML from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Friday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $923.80.

ASML Stock Up 1.1%

Shares of ASML stock traded up $8.88 on Tuesday, hitting $805.13. The stock had a trading volume of 1,322,192 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,703,634. The firm has a market capitalization of $316.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.60, a P/E/G ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.80. The stock's 50 day moving average is $749.01 and its 200-day moving average is $726.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a current ratio of 1.43. ASML Holding N.V. has a 52-week low of $578.51 and a 52-week high of $873.65.

ASML (NASDAQ:ASML - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 16th. The semiconductor company reported $4.55 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 revenue for the quarter was up 23.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $4.01 earnings per share. ASML has set its FY 2025 guidance at EPS. Q3 2025 guidance at EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that ASML Holding N.V. will post 25.17 earnings per share for the current year.

ASML Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 6th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, July 29th were paid a $1.856 dividend. This represents a $7.42 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. This is a boost from ASML's previous quarterly dividend of $1.64. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, July 29th. ASML's payout ratio is currently 26.21%.

ASML 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.