Boston, MA 10/15/2014 (wallstreetpr) – ASML Holding NV (ADR) (NASDAQ:ASML) is sticking to its plan as the company announced its third-quarter results that fell in line with its earlier guidance. The company reported net sales of EUR 1.32 billion against its guided figure of EUR 1.4 billion in the last quarter. While the gross margin the latest reported quarter came higher at 47%, versus the company’s set outlook of 42% in the previous quarter.
Guidance Intact
The marginal difference in the estimated third-quarter net sales and the achieved comes on the backdrop of shift in shipments to the next quarter. However, ASML Holding NV (ADR) (NASDAQ:ASML) sees it as no reason to impact its full year net sales guidance, which is as of now kept at EUR 5.6 billion. The company’s President and CEO, Peter Wennink expressed confidence in the company’s performance going ahead. He said that the strong backlog should be able to keep the sales intact and growing in the first half of the year 2015.
As far as the fourth quarter is concerned, ASML Holding NV (ADR) (NASDAQ:ASML) expects the net sales of EUR 1.3 billion, while the gross margin target is kept near 43%. Among the other major milestones, the company NXE 3300 B EUV system has been able to clear endurance test for second customer last month. The system produced remarkable performance of processing 600 wafers within a span of 24 hours. In August, the first customer of NXE 3300B EUV system had reported processing of 637 wafers in a day.
Share Buyback
Another positive development reported by ASML Holding NV (ADR) (NASDAQ:ASML) is its share buyback plan. In an endeavour to reward shareholders by returning excess cash, the company has announced the buyback of EUR 1.0 billion shares in the fiscal year 2014. Till September 28, 2014, the company has purchased back nearly 11.8 million shares for a consideration of EUR 776 million.
