ASE Technology (NYSE:ASX) Reaches New 1-Year High – Still a Buy?

ASE Technology Holding Co., Ltd. (NYSE:ASX)’s share price reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $43.34 and last traded at $42.3980, with a volume of 317647 shares. The stock had previously closed at $40.56.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

ASE Technology Stock Down 8.7%

The company has a current ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The stock has a market capitalization of $88.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 58.57, a P/E/G ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.72. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $34.40 and its 200 day simple moving average is $25.06.

ASE Technology (NYSE:ASX) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The semiconductor company reported $0.20 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.17 by $0.03. The company 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, research analysts predict that ASE Technology Holding Co., Ltd. will post 0.82 EPS for the current fiscal 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 $0.4171 dividend. This is an increase from ASE Technology’s previous annual dividend of $0.36. This represents a yield of 111.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, July 6th. ASE Technology’s dividend payout ratio is presently 38.24%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Parallel Advisors LLC increased its stake in ASE Technology by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 25,975 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $418,000 after purchasing an additional 482 shares during the last quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC lifted its position in shares of ASE Technology by 5.5% in the 4th quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 11,223 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $181,000 after buying an additional 589 shares during the last quarter. Vest Financial LLC boosted its holdings in shares of ASE Technology by 5.2% in the 4th quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 12,954 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $209,000 after buying an additional 637 shares during the period. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of ASE Technology by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 120,598 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,942,000 after buying an additional 643 shares during the period. Finally, Transamerica Financial Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of ASE Technology by 24.8% during the 4th quarter. Transamerica Financial Advisors LLC now owns 3,435 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $55,000 after buying an additional 683 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 6.80% of the company’s stock.

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.