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

ASE Technology Holding Co., Ltd. (NYSE:ASX) saw some unusual options trading activity on Monday. Stock investors purchased 10,723 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 103% compared to the typical daily volume of 5,270 call options.

ASE Technology Stock Up 8.9%

Shares of ASX stock traded up $3.61 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $44.17. 5,520,268 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,523,400. The stock has a market cap of $98.21 billion, a PE ratio of 64.99, a PEG ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.72. ASE Technology has a 1 year low of $9.30 and a 1 year high of $44.27. 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’s fifty day moving average price is $33.72 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $24.69.

ASE Technology (NYSE:ASX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The semiconductor company reported $0.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.17 by $0.03. ASE Technology had a net margin of 7.03% and a return on equity of 13.48%. The business had revenue of $5.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.32 billion. Research analysts predict that ASE Technology will post 0.82 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 issued a $0.4171 dividend. This is a boost 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 111.0%. ASE Technology’s payout ratio is presently 38.24%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of ASE Technology in a research note on Tuesday, June 9th. Zacks Research raised ASE Technology from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded ASE Technology from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Sunday, April 5th. One research 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, ASE Technology has an average rating of “Buy”.

Institutional Trading of ASE Technology

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of ASX. Rafferty Asset Management LLC increased 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 buying an additional 2,491,918 shares in the last quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group boosted its stake in shares of ASE Technology by 38.4% during the 3rd quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 7,258,450 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $80,787,000 after acquiring an additional 2,012,970 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of ASE Technology by 11.1% during the 4th quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 20,010,829 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $322,174,000 after acquiring an additional 1,997,888 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC grew its position in shares of ASE Technology by 130.8% during the 3rd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 3,169,267 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $35,147,000 after acquiring an additional 1,796,357 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE grew its position in shares of ASE Technology by 18.8% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 8,815,184 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $91,061,000 after acquiring an additional 1,397,206 shares during the period. 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.