ASML Q2 Profit Falls, Lifts Full-year Sales Forecast On Higher Demand

(RTTNews) - Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASML Holding NV (ASML) Wednesday reported lower profit for the second quarter, but lifted its sales forecast for the year as it sees an uptick in demand from DRAM customers.

Peter Wennink, President and CEO of ASML, said, ''ASML's second-quarter operational performance was as planned, excluding the impact of Cymer...''

On a U.S. GAAP basis, net income fell to 220.8 million euros ($290 million) from 291.9 million euros. On the basis of International Finance Reporting Standards, or IFRS, net income decreased to 259.0 million euros from 341.5 million euros in the prior year. The latest figures included Cymer LLC and its subsidiaries as of May 30, 2013.

Total net sales slid to 1.187 billion euros from 1.228 billion euros. Cymer net sales for June, after subtracting ASML intercompany sales, were 31.8 million euros.

Excluding Cymer, earnings were 239 million euros on sales of 1.155 billion euros.

Net system sales fell 7 percent to 915.5 million euros while net service and field option sales grew nearly 12 percent to 271.2 million euros.

ASML said 38 litho systems were sold, compared with 44 in the year-ago period.

Gross margin was 40.6 percent, compared to 43.2 percent last year. According to ASML, the preliminary purchase price allocation and the Cymer consolidation hurt the latest gross margin by 1.2 percentage points.

Looking ahead to the third quarter, ASML expects net sales of about 1.3 billion euros, including Cymer, and a gross margin of about 40 percent.

ASML now expects full-year 2013 sales at a level of up to 5 billion euros, excluding an expected contribution of about 180 million euros from Cymer, which is above the previous guidance of a level similar to the 4.73 billion euros of 2012. The firm expects three EUV systems to be recognized for revenue in 2013.

Wennink added, ''During the second quarter we started to see additional demand from DRAM customers, driven by a healthy mobile DRAM memory market, which could potentially drive 2013 full-year sales to a level of up to EUR 5 billion, excluding Cymer sales.''

The stock closed down 0.6 percent in Amsterdam on Tuesday at 66.48 euros.