Spotlight: ASML

Is ASML(AMS:ASML) the holy grail on the Dutch stock market? Five years ago, the chip-manufacturer traded for 203,66% less than it does today (€90.30). Can they keep up this incredible growth or has the moment past to gain substantial profit on this stock? As they announced their fourth quarterly results today, we immediately saw a rise of their stock price by 4%. The reason for this: a record of sales in 2014 (€5.9 billion), also resulting in a 25% growth in profit year on year. But these are not the only indicators that the stock price will soar ever higher in the future, since ASML also announced a repurchase of shares for €1 billion in the next two years. A share repurchase is often an indication that the current share price is cheap compared to its real value (otherwise companies would not repurchase shares, because then they would simply pay too much for the stock). This indicates that the real value is likely to be higher than the current stock price, hence an upward spike can be expected. But what can be expected from ASML in the long run? ASML recently issued a statement in which they expected the total sales in 2020 to reach €10 billion (compared to €5.9 billion in 2014), which amounts to an ambitious 9,2% sales growth. Since ASML is highly competitive and is also highly spending on innovation, we think that this number might be quite accurate or even conservative. ASML is highly spending on a new laser technique (EUV), which may alter the chip-industry as a whole. This technique will definitely boost ASML's sales and profit, therefore we also think that ASML will prove to be a great stock in the future. ASML may not be the holy grail on the stock market, but it surely is quite a pearl.