ASML Holding NV (ASML.AE) Wednesday ushered in the European technology earnings season with record results that beat market expectations and said it plans to double its dividend and launch a share buyback.
ASML, the world's largest maker of lithography systems that map out electronic circuits on silicon wafers, said net profit for the quarter ended Dec. 31 rose sharply to €406.8 million from €50.5 million a year earlier, while sales rose to €1.52 billion from €581 million.
The Veldhoven, Netherlands-based company booked orders valued at €2.32 billion in the period, bringing its order backlog to an all-time high of €3.86 billion.
ASML's performance builds on the recent strong performance of the broader technology segment. Late Tuesday, Apple Inc. said its fiscal first-quarter profit surged 78% on the success of its iPhone and Mac computers. Earlier this month chip giant Intel Corp., one of ASML's most important customers, said it continued to benefit from strong demand from corporate customers and expects 2011 revenue to rise about 10% annually amid strong growth in server demand and from emerging markets.
"The fourth quarter was a strong close to a remarkable year in the history of ASML during which we achieved record sales, profit and bookings," said ASML's Chief Executive Eric Meurice.
"This record-breaking backlog and the additional expected first-quarter bookings in 2011 confirm a potential for more than €5 billion of net sales in 2011," he said.
For the current first quarter ASML expects sales of around €1.4 billion and a gross margin of between 44% and 45%. As a result, ASML said it intends to double its dividend payout to €0.40 a share and intends to buy back shares for a value up to €1 billion within two years.
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