ASE Technology (NYSE:ASX) Downgraded to “Hold” Rating by Wall Street Zen

ASE Technology (NYSE:ASX) was downgraded by research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Saturday.

Several other brokerages have also recently issued reports on ASX. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of ASE Technology in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Zacks Research cut ASE Technology from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Thursday, January 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, ASE Technology presently has an average rating of “Hold”.

ASE Technology Price Performance

ASX opened at $21.54 on Friday. ASE Technology has a 1 year low of $6.94 and a 1 year high of $25.28. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $21.69 and its 200 day simple moving average is $16.81. The stock has a market capitalization of $47.77 billion, a PE ratio of 37.13, a P/E/G ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a current ratio of 1.28.

ASE Technology (NYSE:ASX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The semiconductor company reported $0.21 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.20 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $5.22 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.47 billion. ASE Technology had a net margin of 6.31% and a return on equity of 12.00%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that ASE Technology will post 0.76 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of ASX. Lazard Asset Management LLC grew its stake in ASE Technology by 11.1% during the fourth quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 20,010,829 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $322,174,000 after buying an additional 1,997,888 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley raised 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 acquiring an additional 1,330,580 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE raised its stake in shares of ASE Technology by 9.6% in 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 acquiring an additional 846,300 shares during the period. UBS Group AG lifted its holdings in shares of ASE Technology by 11.4% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Rafferty Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of ASE Technology by 50.9% during the 2nd 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 in the last quarter. 6.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.