AMSL cheers investors with above-guidance second-quarter numbers

Shares in ASML sparked 5% on Wednesday, after the Dutch semiconductor equipment specialist predicted a year of growth despite a dip in second-quarter sales.

Second-quarter net sales came in at €2.6bn, against €2.7bn a year earlier, while net income fell from €584m to €476m. Earnings per share were €1.13 against €1.37 in the second quarter of 2018.

Quarter-on-quarter, however, EPS rose from €0.84 in the first three months of the year, while net sales rose from €2.2bn. The gross margin was 43%, ahead of previous guidance.

The semiconductor industry has seen demand for memory chips slow, caused by increasingly saturated mobile phone markets and trade tensions between the US and China. ASML said: “Current macroeconomic environment creates end market volatility resulting in industry uncertainty. Memory customers continue to digest capacity additions in a weaker demand environment, while logic customers accelerate ramp of their new leading edge nodes.”

However, president and chief executive Peter Wennink added: “Our second-quarter sales came in within guidance and the gross margin came in above guidance, helped by improved EUV manufacturing results and higher field upgrade sales, which more than compensates the negative mix effect in comparison with the first quarter.

“For the remainder of the year we see further weakness in memory, while logic looks stronger. We expect that the increased demand in logic will compensate for the decreased demand in memory.”

ASML, which supplies Samsung and Intel, among others, also remained confident for the full year. Wennink said: “Our 2019 total sales view remains unchanged and we continue to see 2019 as a growth year.” ASML expects third-quarter net sales of around €3bn and a gross margin of between 43% and 44%.

As at 1415 BST, shares in ASML were 5% higher at €194.