ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML) Shares Sold by Cutter & CO Brokerage Inc.

Cutter & CO Brokerage Inc. reduced its holdings in ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML) by 12.7% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 343 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 50 shares during the quarter. Cutter & CO Brokerage Inc.’s holdings in ASML were worth $260,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in ASML. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in shares of ASML by 34.6% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,067,413 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $628,344,000 after acquiring an additional 274,562 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in ASML by 48,040.7% in the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 245,999 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $186,202,000 after purchasing an additional 245,488 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC raised its position in ASML by 106.5% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 336,956 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $198,353,000 after purchasing an additional 173,813 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC boosted its stake in shares of ASML by 15.3% in the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 1,146,157 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $867,549,000 after purchasing an additional 151,844 shares during the period. Finally, FMR LLC increased its stake in ASML by 3.6% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,607,702 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $2,123,710,000 after buying an additional 126,413 shares during the period. 26.07% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on ASML shares. Susquehanna upped their price objective on shares of ASML from $830.00 to $1,100.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Evercore ISI initiated coverage on ASML in a report on Tuesday, April 16th. They set an “outperform” rating on the stock. Raymond James lifted their price objective on shares of ASML from $850.00 to $1,000.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their target price on shares of ASML from $1,072.00 to $1,052.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Finally, Redburn Atlantic upgraded shares of ASML from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,036.00.

ASML Stock Performance

NASDAQ ASML traded down $8.70 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $892.87. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 506,697 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,239,089. ASML Holding has a 52 week low of $563.99 and a 52 week high of $1,056.34. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $957.00 and a 200 day moving average price of $800.90. The firm has a market cap of $352.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 1.48. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 1.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33.

ASML (NASDAQ:ASML) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 24th. The semiconductor company reported $5.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.12 by $0.48. ASML had a net margin of 27.23% and a return on equity of 56.99%. The company had revenue of $7.79 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.34 billion. Equities research analysts forecast that ASML Holding will post 20.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ASML Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 7th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 29th will be issued a $1.343 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 26th. This represents a $5.37 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.60%. ASML’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 27.02%.

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.