ASE Technology Holding Co., Ltd. $ASX Shares Sold by Lazard Asset Management LLC

Lazard Asset Management LLC cut its position in shares of ASE Technology Holding Co., Ltd. (NYSE:ASX) by 32.4% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 13,530,133 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 6,480,696 shares during the quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC’s holdings in ASE Technology were worth $293,333,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Morgan Stanley grew its stake in shares of ASE Technology by 14.3% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 10,607,588 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $170,782,000 after buying an additional 1,330,580 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE raised its position in shares of ASE Technology by 9.6% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 9,661,484 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $107,146,000 after buying an additional 846,300 shares during the period. UBS Group AG lifted its holdings in ASE Technology by 11.4% in the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 9,038,322 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $145,517,000 after acquiring an additional 922,692 shares during the last quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in ASE Technology by 50.9% in the second quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 7,392,190 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $76,361,000 after acquiring an additional 2,491,918 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its holdings in ASE Technology by 15.6% in the first 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 during the last quarter. 6.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

ASE Technology Stock Performance

Shares of ASX stock opened at $36.79 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a current ratio of 1.15. The firm has a market cap of $81.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 54.10 and a beta of 1.69. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $38.80 and its 200-day moving average price is $29.13. ASE Technology Holding Co., Ltd. has a one year low of $9.30 and a one year high of $45.51.

ASE Technology (NYSE:ASX) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The semiconductor company reported $0.20 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.17 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $5.43 billion during 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%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that ASE Technology Holding Co., Ltd. will post 0.82 EPS for the current year.

ASE Technology Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed an annual dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 7th. Stockholders of record on Monday, July 6th will be paid a $0.4171 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, July 6th. This is a boost from ASE Technology’s previous annual dividend of $0.36. This represents a dividend yield of 96.0%. ASE Technology’s payout ratio is presently 45.59%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Wall Street Zen raised 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 note on Tuesday, June 9th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded ASE Technology from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has given a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy”.

ASE Technology Profile

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.