ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML) Sees Large Increase in Short Interest

ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML) was the target of a significant growth in short interest during the month of October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,270,000 shares, a growth of 8.5% from the October 15th total of 1,170,000 shares. Currently, 0.3% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 1,840,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 0.7 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ASML

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in ASML. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV increased its position in shares of ASML by 4,379.6% during the second quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 889,875 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $910,102,000 after acquiring an additional 870,010 shares in the last quarter. Fayez Sarofim & Co bought a new stake in shares of ASML during the first quarter worth $542,710,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its position 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 acquiring an additional 491,096 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its position in ASML by 37.0% in the third 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 in the last quarter. Finally, GQG Partners LLC grew its position in ASML by 21.6% in the first quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 1,657,878 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,608,921,000 after purchasing an additional 294,784 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 26.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ASML has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Barclays raised shares of ASML from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Morgan Stanley lowered shares of ASML from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, September 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of ASML from $1,207.00 to $1,148.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Berenberg Bank upgraded shares of ASML to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, UBS Group lowered shares of ASML from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $970.60.

ASML Trading Down 5.0 %

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

ASML (NASDAQ:ASML) last posted 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. ASML had a net margin of 26.40% and a return on equity of 47.61%. The company had revenue of $8.21 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.66 billion. Equities research analysts anticipate that ASML will post 20.77 EPS for the current year.

ASML Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed 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. This represents a $5.63 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, October 29th. ASML’s dividend payout ratio is 29.21%.

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.