ASML Q2 Results Climb; Sees Sales Growth Ahead; To Buy Back Up To €9 Bln Shares

(RTTNews) - Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASML Holding N.V. (ASML) reported Wednesday that its second-quarter net income was 1.04 billion euros, higher than last year's 751 million euros.

Earnings per share grew to 2.52 euros from 1.79 euros a year ago.

Total net sales increased to 4.02 billion euros from prior year's 3.33 billion euros.

Net bookings for the quarter were 8.3 billion euros.

Looking ahead for the third quarter, ASML expects net sales between 5.2 billion euros and 5.4 billion euros with a gross margin between 51 percent and 52 percent.

For fiscal 2021, net sales are now expected to grow by around 35 percent.

ASML President and Chief Executive Officer Peter Wennink said, "We are working to maximize output and we currently expect net sales growth by around 35 percent in 2021 compared to last year with an expected gross margin between 51 percent and 52 percent."

Further, ASML announced a new share buyback program of up to 9 billion euros to be executed by December 31, 2023. Of this, the company expects a total of up to 0.45 million shares will be used to cover employee share plans.

The new program will replace the previous 6 billion euros share buyback program 2020-2022.