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Luke Kawa & David Crowther

ASML rises on revenue beat and rosy top-line outlook, outweighing slightly softer margins

Dutch semi equipment giant ASML’s strong start to the year looks set to continue after the company’s solid revenue beat, rosy 2026 guidance, and strong order book outweighed softer margins in the final quarter of last year. For Q4, the company reported:

  • Net sales: €9.718 billion (estimate: €9.57 billion). A 1.6% beat.

  • Adjusted earnings per share: €7.34 (estimate: €7.56). A 3% miss.

The guidance told a similar story, with a stronger top-line and marginally softer margin outlook.

For the full year in 2026, ASML management expects total net sales to be between €34 billion and €39 billion, with a gross margin between 51% and 53%. The analyst consensus estimate, as of 4 a.m. ET this morning, was expecting €35.1 billion, with an anticipated gross margin of 52.9%. At the midpoints of those ranges, the guidance is solidly above on revenue and a bit below on margin.

For the current quarter, ASML said sales would range from €8.2 billion to €8.9 billion, with the same gross margin profile as the full year (between 51% and 53%). Even the low end of that revenue guidance is above the Street’s forecasts, with Q1 consensus estimates compiled by Bloomberg showing €8.1 billion in revenue.

The strength of demand for the company’s highly sought-after extreme ultraviolet lithography machines was underscored in its bookings, one of the most closely watched figures in the industry, which came in at €13.2 billion in Q4 — a blowout compared to the €6.8 billion analysts were expecting.

The company also announced that it would be cutting about 1,700 jobs in the Netherlands and the US, representing about a 4% reduction to its workforce, per Bloomberg.

ADRs of Europe’s largest publicly traded company pushed higher immediately after the print, though they have since pared some of those gains, currently up around 4.4% as of 4:25 a.m. That upward jolt adds to a strong start to 2026, with the stock up 36% heading into this report. The longevity and magnitude of the AI boom is spurring massive capital expenditure not just by hyperscalers, but also from the chip companies that supply the brains behind this build-out.

ASML and other semicap companies offer equipment that enables chip companies to make more chips. The Dutch company’s extreme ultraviolet lithography occupies a particularly important choke point in chip development by etching designs onto tiny wafers.

Back in July, ASML rattled investors by warning that growth in 2026 couldn’t be guaranteed. These results, backlog, and guidance suggest that those fears won’t come to pass, to put it mildly.

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Nike sinks to lowest level since 2014 after warning of “challenged” sales environment in Q4 report

Did Nike do it?

Investors had a mixed reaction after the global sports apparel company reported its fourth quarter earnings on Tuesday after the bell. Shares initially rose 5% as Nike beat out Wall Street expectations amid a hefty tariff refund bonus. However, the stock then sank to its lowest level since August 2014 in postmarket trading.

Here are the Q4 numbers:

  • Revenue of $11.0 billion (estimate: $10.8 billion).

  • Adjusted earnings per share of $0.20 (estimate: $0.12).

Ahead of this report, Nike warned that results would be flattered by a one-time tariff refund (now estimated at roughly $0.52 per share for the bottom line). That gave the company an extra cushion in snapping its streak of seven quarters of year-over-year profit declines.

Over the past year, the company had been punished by tariffs on imported goods, stagnant consumer spending, and increasing competition from other footwear brands like New Balance, Adidas, and Hoka.

Outgoing CFO Matthew Friend deemed it an “increasingly challenging operating environment, where sell-through remains challenged.”

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