CFRA, an independent research provider, has provided MT Newswires with the following research alert. Analysts at CFRA have summarized their opinion as follows:
We raise our target price by $99 to $1,033, 32x our ’25 EPS view, above peers on ASML’s leading competitive position and sizeable backlog (EUR39B) and above its 3-year average (~29x) on accelerating demand for advanced equipment to support AI applications. We raise our ’24 EPS view by EUR0.36 to EUR18.76 and raise ’25’s by EUR0.35 to EUR29.90 as our outlook for the semiconductor industry continues to broadly improve across key memory and logic applications. Our downgrade is valuation-based, as shares are up ~15% since the publishing of our previous note (Jan. 24) and up ~30% year-to-date. We believe shares have risen largely on a better-than-expected backlog position entering ’24, with further support coming from strong peer earnings performance and positive industry commentary. Still, we think much of the near-term upside has been realized, and note that the focus in ’24 is on building capacity to support ’25 demand, while the potential for further China export restrictions remains a key risk, in our view.