ASE Technology Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:ASX)

ASE Technology Holding Co., Ltd. (NYSE:ASX) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock investors acquired 29,024 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 1,134% compared to the typical daily volume of 2,352 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently issued reports on ASX. Zacks Research downgraded ASE Technology from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 1st. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of ASE Technology from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, March 7th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of ASE Technology in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold”.

ASE Technology Price Performance

Shares of ASX stock opened at $21.91 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a current ratio of 1.28. The stock has a market cap of $48.60 billion, a PE ratio of 37.78, a PEG ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 1.42. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $20.79 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $15.90. ASE Technology has a 52-week low of $6.94 and a 52-week high of $25.28.

ASE Technology (NYSE:ASX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The semiconductor company reported $0.11 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.20 by ($0.09). ASE Technology had a net margin of 6.31% and a return on equity of 12.00%. The firm had revenue of $5.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.47 billion. As a group, analysts forecast that ASE Technology will post 0.76 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ASE Technology

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of ASE Technology by 11.1% in the 4th quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 20,010,829 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $322,174,000 after purchasing an additional 1,997,888 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley grew its holdings in shares of ASE Technology by 14.3% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 10,607,588 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $170,782,000 after buying an additional 1,330,580 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE raised its position in 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 buying an additional 846,300 shares during the last quarter. UBS Group AG raised its position in ASE Technology by 11.4% in the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 9,038,322 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $145,517,000 after buying an additional 922,692 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rafferty Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in ASE Technology by 50.9% in 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.

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.