Central Pacific Bank Trust Division Acquires Shares of 1,694 ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML)

Central Pacific Bank Trust Division bought a new position in shares of ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 1,694 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,174,000.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV raised its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 870,010 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of ASML by 94,079.7% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 491,618 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $4,096,410,000 after purchasing an additional 491,096 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its stake in ASML by 37.0% in the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,757,049 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,464,061,000 after purchasing an additional 474,653 shares during the period. Tairen Capital Ltd grew its holdings in ASML by 321.2% in the 2nd quarter. Tairen Capital Ltd now owns 202,946 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $207,559,000 after buying an additional 154,760 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mediolanum International Funds Ltd bought a new position in ASML during the 3rd quarter worth $125,952,000. 26.07% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of ASML from $1,207.00 to $1,148.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Berenberg Bank raised shares of ASML to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. BNP Paribas initiated coverage on shares of ASML in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $858.00 price target for the company. Susquehanna reduced their price target on ASML from $1,300.00 to $1,100.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Finally, Morgan Stanley downgraded ASML from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, ASML has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $943.83.

ASML Stock Performance

NASDAQ:ASML opened at $714.36 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 1.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The firm has a market capitalization of $281.04 billion, a PE ratio of 37.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 1.49. ASML Holding has a twelve month low of $645.45 and a twelve month high of $1,110.09. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $693.88 and its 200 day simple moving average is $821.44.

ASML (NASDAQ:ASML) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The semiconductor company reported $5.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.24 by $0.56. The company had revenue of $8.21 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.66 billion. ASML had a net margin of 26.40% and a return on equity of 47.61%. On average, analysts anticipate that ASML Holding will post 20.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ASML Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 7th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, October 29th were paid a $1.407 dividend. This represents a $5.63 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.79%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, October 29th. ASML’s payout ratio is 29.21%.

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.