ASML The stock market soared almost 5% this Wednesday after having presented its second quarter results and have raised their sales projections for the year. Specifically, the Dutch company, which is the world’s largest supplier of photolithography systems for the semiconductor industry, has earned 2,918 million euros, which represents 27% moreand also has raised its sales forecast for the second time this year due to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips. This is how analysts value these accounts. Specifically, ASML now foresees Total net sales by 2026 of between 43,000 and 45,000 million of euros, with a gross margin between 54% and 56%as confirmed by the company’s CEO, Christophe Fouquet. It had previously forecast annual net sales of between 36,000 and 40,000 million euros, and a gross margin of between 51% and 53%. The results have been «very positiveaccompanied by higher-than-expected forecasts for both third-quarter and full-year sales,» comments Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote. For their part, Bankinter strategists indicate, in their daily market report, that ASML’s results and messages «are very positive,» while the improved guidance for the year «shows signs of the strength of the business». «The company also points out in its statement that it is seeing enormous strength in the order book, which implies that current growth could extend until 2028«, stand out from the orange bank. At Bankinter they continue to consider that ASML «is one of the most attractive securities in the semiconductor sector»so they reiterate their ‘buy’ advice, and remember that before their results the Dutch company had accumulated a rise of 69% in the year. And at Banco Sabadell they express themselves along the same lines: «The company’s indications reiterate a great strength of demand and raises the sales guidance to a range of 43,000/45,000 million euros, which is approximately 16% above that before, 11% above the consensus and 17% above Sabadell’s forecast», explain the entity’s analysts. In their opinion, these are about «clearly positive results, which convey confidence in the value». Alexis Bienvenu, fund manager at La Financière de l’Échiquier (LFDE), recalls that ASML has a stock market valuation estimated at almost 50 times the expected earnings per share in 2026, and says that its progress so far this year places it «at the top of European stock market capitalization, with a value around 600,000 million euros «It is, therefore, far behind the American giants, but far ahead of the rest of the European stock market. What is this prodigy due to? Mainly, to the fact that its position is unique in the world«, explains the expert, and is that «while the giants of the digital sector compete with each other, ASML has acquired such a technological advantage that it has no competitor in its most advanced products». In this sense, it highlights that its activity «is not exactly simple», given that manufactures the lithography machines used to produce electronic chips. To do this, it uses a cutting-edge technology called Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV). However, says Bienvenu, «generating this type of radiation is quite a feat,» as microdroplets of tin are hit by a laser to create a plasma that briefly reaches a temperature higher than that of the surface of the Sun. And then this light makes it possible to etch the most sophisticated electronic components in the world. «Without ASML, there would be no next-generation Nvidia chips, nor advanced production at TSMC, Samsung or Intel. In the global rush for AI gold, ASML does not sell the spikes: it produces the machines that, in turn, make the spikes,» highlights the LFDE manager.
THE SUCCESS OF ASML
Bienvenu adds that «the most surprising thing is that ASML was not destined to dominate this market.» It was created in 1984 as a joint venture between Philips and ASM International, and was a «perfect unknown» to the Japanese giants Nikon and Canon. However, the Dutch «embarked on a colossal bet: investing for almost twenty years in EUV technology despite the difficulties and their gigantic costs.» Thus, he explains, «when the technology finally reached maturity, ASML’s advantage began to be practically impossible to achieve,» and Nikon and Canon never managed to get back into the race. Furthermore, the manager emphasizes, ASML’s success is not limited to new machines. «An important part of its equipment continues to be manufactured for decades. In this way, the group obtains recurring income for maintenance, spare parts and modernization of an installed park unique in the sector,» he says. «And the story does not end there, since ASML is already working on the next generation of its equipmentmachines called ‘High-NA EUV’ that are extremely expensive (close to 400 million euros per unit, that is, more than a modern high-capacity passenger plane) and that will further strengthen their dominance,» he concludes.
