ASML Q1 Profit Climbs As Revenue Grows

(RTTNews) - Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASML Holding NV (ASML) Wednesday reported a significant increase in the first-quarter profit, supported by solid improvement in sales that benefited from memory customers. The firm, however, expects sales in the second quarter to be affected by adjustments of system demand from some logic customers.

Net income soared to 249.1 million euros ($344.5 million) from 96.2 million euros in the previous year. In accordance with IFRS, quarterly net income climbed to 283.3 million euros from 155.7 million euros last year.

Net sales increased to 1.40 billion euros from 892.1 million euros in the prior year.

The company sold 40 litho systems in the quarter, up from 29 in the previous year. Net booking value surged to 1.070 billion euros from 715 million euros last year.

Gross margin improved to 43.6 percent from 38.2 percent in the prior year.

Eric Meurice, CEO, said, ''We are pleased to report that our first-quarter sales came in as expected, largely driven by memory customers. Our gross margin was better than expected because of a favourable product mix compared with what we had forecasted and the contribution of our Holistic Lithography products.''

Meurice said sales in the second quarter are expected to be affected by adjustments of system demand from some logic customers, which means first-half 2014 sales will be around 3 billion euros including sales from Extreme Ultraviolet or EUV systems, compared to earlier guidance of around 3 billion euros that excluded EUV.

For the remainder of the year, the company expects logic customers installing capacity for their 20/16/14 nanometer nodes, but at the same time timing uncertainties may arise in next-generation device designs.

Looking ahead to the second quarter, ASML projects net sales of around 1.6 billion euros, including EUV sales and a gross margin of 44 - 45 percent.

The stock fell 1.6 percent in Amsterdam on Tuesday to close at 61.75 euros.