Stock Traders Purchase Large Volume of Call Options on ASE Technology (NYSE:ASX)

ASE Technology Holding Co., Ltd. (NYSE:ASX) saw unusually large options trading activity on Thursday. Investors acquired 45,037 call options on the company. This is an increase of 681% compared to the average daily volume of 5,770 call options.

ASE Technology Stock Down 2.5%

Shares of ASE Technology stock opened at $38.52 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. ASE Technology has a 12 month low of $9.30 and a 12 month high of $45.51. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $38.41 and a 200 day simple moving average of $28.26. The stock has a market cap of $85.66 billion, a PE ratio of 56.65 and a beta of 1.69.

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

ASE Technology Increases Dividend

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On ASE Technology

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ASX. Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 1,997,888 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley grew its holdings 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 in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE increased its position in shares of ASE Technology by 9.6% in the third 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 last quarter. UBS Group AG boosted its position in ASE Technology by 11.4% during the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 9,038,322 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $145,517,000 after purchasing an additional 922,692 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rafferty Asset Management LLC boosted its position in ASE Technology by 50.9% during 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 purchasing an additional 2,491,918 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 6.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ASX has been the subject of several research reports. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of ASE Technology in a research note on Tuesday, June 9th. Wall Street Zen raised ASE Technology from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, April 5th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded 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 given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy”.

ASE Technology Company 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.