ASE Technology Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (NYSE:ASX)

ASE Technology Holding Co., Ltd. (NYSE:ASX) was the target of unusually large options trading on Thursday. Stock traders bought 45,037 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 681% compared to the typical daily volume of 5,770 call options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Wall Street Zen raised shares of ASE Technology from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, April 5th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of ASE Technology in a research report on Tuesday, June 9th. Finally, Zacks Research raised shares of ASE Technology from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has given a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy”.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ASE Technology

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Jones Financial Companies Lllp boosted its stake in ASE Technology by 16.9% during the first quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 13,425 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $118,000 after acquiring an additional 1,943 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its stake in ASE Technology by 15.6% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 5,775,272 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $50,591,000 after acquiring an additional 780,651 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in ASE Technology by 16.3% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,576 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $140,000 after buying an additional 1,901 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its holdings in ASE Technology by 261.9% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 15,647 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $162,000 after acquiring an additional 11,324 shares during the period. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its holdings in shares of ASE Technology by 537.5% in the 2nd quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 4,928 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $51,000 after buying an additional 4,155 shares during the last quarter. 6.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

ASE Technology Stock Down 2.8%

Shares of ASX stock traded down $1.15 during trading on Thursday, reaching $39.57. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 4,980,937 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,036,628. ASE Technology has a one year low of $9.30 and a one year high of $45.51. The company has a market cap of $87.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 58.19 and a beta of 1.69. The company has a quick ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $38.20 and a 200-day moving average price of $28.02.

ASE Technology (NYSE:ASX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The semiconductor company reported $0.20 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.17 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $5.43 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.32 billion. ASE Technology had a net margin of 7.03% and a return on equity of 13.48%. Analysts anticipate that ASE Technology will post 0.84 earnings per share for the current year.

ASE Technology Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed an annual dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 7th. Investors of record on Monday, July 6th will be issued a dividend of $0.4171 per share. This is a positive change from ASE Technology’s previous annual dividend of $0.36. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, July 6th. This represents a dividend yield of 96.0%. ASE Technology’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 45.59%.

About ASE Technology

ASE Technology Holding Co, Ltd. (NYSE: ASX), commonly referred to as ASE, is a Taiwan-based provider of semiconductor assembly and testing services. The company focuses on back-end semiconductor manufacturing and related services that prepare integrated circuits and other semiconductor devices for final use. Its core activities include advanced IC packaging, final testing, wafer probing, and related engineering and supply-chain support for semiconductor customers.

ASE offers a range of products and technical capabilities designed to meet increasingly complex packaging and system-in-package requirements.