Aurora Investment Counsel Has $228,000 Position in ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML)

Aurora Investment Counsel lowered its stake in shares of ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML) by 87.3% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 223 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 1,531 shares during the period. Aurora Investment Counsel’s holdings in ASML were worth $228,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV grew its stake in ASML by 4,379.6% in the 2nd quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 889,875 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $910,102,000 after buying an additional 870,010 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC grew its position in shares of ASML by 50.0% in 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 purchasing an additional 572,996 shares during the last quarter. Fayez Sarofim & Co acquired a new stake in ASML in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $542,710,000. GQG Partners LLC increased its position in ASML by 21.6% in the 1st quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 1,657,878 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,608,921,000 after buying an additional 294,784 shares during the period. Finally, 1832 Asset Management L.P. boosted its position in shares of ASML by 11,084.1% in the first quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 246,050 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $238,784,000 after acquiring an additional 243,850 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 26.07% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on ASML. UBS Group downgraded shares of ASML from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. Barclays upgraded ASML from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Susquehanna boosted their price target on ASML from $1,200.00 to $1,300.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Thursday, July 11th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of ASML from $1,150.00 to $1,185.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, June 17th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered shares of ASML from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $1,147.80.

ASML Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:ASML opened at $833.25 on Tuesday. ASML Holding has a 1-year low of $567.57 and a 1-year high of $1,110.09. The company has a market capitalization of $328.79 billion, a PE ratio of 42.56, a PEG ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 1.49. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $853.67 and a 200-day moving average price of $932.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 1.52 and a quick ratio of 0.84.

ASML (NASDAQ:ASML) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 17th. The semiconductor company reported $4.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.87 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $6.24 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6 billion. ASML had a return on equity of 49.93% and a net margin of 26.50%. The firm’s revenue was down 9.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $5.37 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that ASML Holding will post 20.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ASML Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 7th. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 29th were given a $1.8732 dividend. This represents a $7.49 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.90%. This is a boost from ASML’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.34. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, July 29th. ASML’s payout ratio is 28.50%.

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.