Why ASML Holding Shares Rose 63% in 2021

Shares of ASML Holding (NASDAQ: ASML) gained 63.2% last year, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. The maker of lithography systems that are used for manufacturing semiconductor chips is among the handful of companies that benefit from the long-running shortage of chipmaking facilities around the world.

If you're making computer chips, your clean room probably has some of ASML's lithography machines installed. The company is not only a market leader in this field, but also stands alone on the leading edge of advanced lithography systems. So when Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE: TSM) is investing billions of dollars in next-generation manufacturing facilities and Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) is entering the chip foundry market along with another massive infrastructure boost, ASML is definitely reaping plenty of system orders from those factory-building ambitions.

The company dug into that opportunity in 2021. Sales added up to $6 billion dollars in the first three quarters of the year, a 40% constant-currency increase over the same period of 2020. Earnings soared 90% higher over the same period. At the same time, ASML has a backlog of unfilled system orders worth $21.8 billion, which works out to a 172% year-over-year increase.

Source Fool.com