Aljian Capital Management LLC Buys Shares of 339 ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML)

Aljian Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML) in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm purchased 339 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $282,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in ASML. Hilltop National Bank increased its position in shares of ASML by 1.0% during the second quarter. Hilltop National Bank now owns 975 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $997,000 after purchasing an additional 10 shares in the last quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. lifted its stake in ASML by 1.1% in the second quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 1,134 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,159,000 after buying an additional 12 shares during the last quarter. Pure Financial Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of ASML by 2.8% in the second quarter. Pure Financial Advisors LLC now owns 444 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $454,000 after acquiring an additional 12 shares during the period. First Pacific Financial grew its position in shares of ASML by 1.1% during the second quarter. First Pacific Financial now owns 1,121 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,146,000 after acquiring an additional 12 shares during the last quarter. Finally, RMR Wealth Builders increased its holdings in shares of ASML by 0.6% in the 2nd quarter. RMR Wealth Builders now owns 2,114 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $2,162,000 after acquiring an additional 12 shares during the period. 26.07% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on ASML shares. UBS Group cut shares of ASML from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. Morgan Stanley downgraded ASML from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, September 20th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on ASML from $1,000.00 to $790.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered their price objective on shares of ASML from $1,052.00 to $815.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on 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. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, ASML has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $970.60.

ASML Stock Performance

NASDAQ:ASML opened at $658.63 on Monday. ASML Holding has a twelve month low of $654.77 and a twelve month high of $1,110.09. The firm has a market capitalization of $259.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.48, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.51. The company has a current ratio of 1.55, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $756.70 and its 200 day simple moving average is $881.85.

ASML (NASDAQ:ASML) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The semiconductor company reported $5.80 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.24 by $0.56. The company had revenue of $8.21 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.66 billion. ASML had a return on equity of 47.61% and a net margin of 26.40%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that ASML Holding will post 20.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ASML Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 7th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, October 29th were given a dividend of $1.407 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, October 29th. This represents a $5.63 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.85%. ASML’s payout ratio is currently 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.