Sit Investment Associates Inc. Grows Holdings in ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML)

Key Points

• Sit Investment Associates Inc. increased its stake in ASML Holding N.V. by 7.4%, owning 14,895 shares worth approximately $9.87 million.
• Several institutional investors have significantly increased their holdings in ASML, with GAMMA Investing LLC increasing its stake by over 70,000%.
• ASML recently announced a quarterly dividend increase to $1.856 per share, reflecting a 1.0% yield and up from the previous dividend of $1.64.

Sit Investment Associates Inc. raised its stake in ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML - Free Report) by 7.4% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 14,895 shares of the semiconductor company's stock after acquiring an additional 1,025 shares during the quarter. Sit Investment Associates Inc.'s holdings in ASML were worth $9,870,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in ASML by 70,115.5% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,400,800 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $9,282,120,000 after acquiring an additional 1,398,805 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in ASML by 101.0% during the 1st 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 period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of ASML by 26.5% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 952,385 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $631,079,000 after buying an additional 199,740 shares during the last quarter. First Manhattan CO. LLC. increased its holdings in shares of ASML by 59.4% in the 4th quarter. First Manhattan CO. LLC. now owns 439,890 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $307,374,000 after buying an additional 163,945 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hyperion Asset Management Ltd increased its holdings in shares of ASML by 63.9% in the 4th quarter. Hyperion Asset Management Ltd now owns 297,882 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $206,456,000 after buying an additional 116,121 shares during the last quarter. 26.07% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on ASML. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of ASML from $840.00 to $890.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Sanford C. Bernstein started coverage on shares of ASML in a research report on Tuesday, June 17th. They set a "market perform" rating and a $806.00 price target for the company. Barclays reissued an "equal weight" rating on shares of ASML in a research report on Tuesday, June 3rd. Susquehanna dropped their target price on shares of ASML from $1,100.00 to $965.00 and set a "positive" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, Citigroup reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of ASML in a research report on Monday, May 19th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $923.80.

ASML Trading Down 0.0%

Shares of NASDAQ ASML opened at $755.21 on Friday. ASML Holding N.V. has a 1 year low of $578.51 and a 1 year high of $945.05. The stock has a market cap of $297.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 1.76. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $758.10 and a 200 day moving average of $725.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 1.43 and a quick ratio of 0.81.

ASML (NASDAQ:ASML - Get Free Report) last released 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.72 billion. ASML had a net margin of 26.95% and a return on equity of 49.47%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 23.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $4.01 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that ASML Holding N.V. will post 25.17 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ASML Increases Dividend

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

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.

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