The Dutch lithography giant is printing money — and handing it straight back to shareholders. ASML bought back 52,830 of its own shares for €63.49 million at the end of April, a small slice of a €12 billion repurchase programme that has already seen €1.1 billion deployed in the first quarter alone. The buyback, running since January 2026, comes as the stock hit a fresh 52-week high of €1,326.80, having more than doubled over the past twelve months.
Shareholders are also collecting a quarterly dividend of $3.17 per share, paid on Tuesday, with the board targeting a full-year payout of €7.50 for 2025 — a 17% increase. The combination of record buybacks and rising dividends reflects a company awash in cash, thanks to its iron grip on the market for advanced lithography systems.
A Monopoly That Keeps Getting Stronger
CEO Christophe Fouquet has been blunt about ASML’s competitive position: no rival is currently challenging its monopoly in extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. The next technological leap, High-NA EUV, promises to cut chipmakers’ production costs per wafer by 20% to 30%. That is not a marginal efficiency gain — it is structural pricing power that allows ASML to dictate terms to the world’s largest semiconductor manufacturers.
The company maintains a technology lead of two to three generations over any potential competitor. Export restrictions on cutting-edge equipment to China remain a risk, but they have done nothing to dent global demand. If anything, they have reinforced ASML’s pricing power in markets outside Beijing’s reach.
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The Numbers Behind the Rally
The first quarter of 2026 delivered €8.8 billion in revenue, €2.8 billion in net profit, and a gross margin of 53%. Analysts expect full-year sales to land between €36 billion and €40 billion. The stock has gained roughly 34% since the start of the year and trades about 33% above its 200-day moving average — a measure of just how aggressive the re-rating has been since the August 2025 trough.
The relative strength index sits at 69, technically close to overbought territory but not yet flashing a warning. The market is clearly pricing in more than the consensus. The average analyst price target stands at around $1,504, already below the current share price. That gap suggests investors expect the next earnings report to force upgrades.
What Comes Next
The immediate catalyst is the second-quarter results, due on 15 July. Analysts forecast earnings per share of $8.08, a jump of nearly 78% from the same period last year. The broader sector is also providing tailwinds: AMD recently raised its long-term forecast for the server CPU market to over $120 billion by 2030, implying annual growth of more than 35%. That pulled Intel, Arm, and Qualcomm higher alongside ASML.
Global investment in AI infrastructure is expected to reach between $600 billion and $700 billion in 2026. ASML sits at the bottleneck of that spending spree — the only company that builds the machines required to produce the most advanced chips. As long as that remains true, the buybacks and dividends are likely to keep flowing.
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