ASE Technology (NYSE:ASX) Shares Gap Up – Still a Buy?

ASE Technology Holding Co., Ltd. (NYSE:ASX) shares gapped up before the market opened on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $36.90, but opened at $39.57. ASE Technology shares last traded at $39.4740, with a volume of 1,048,395 shares.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

ASE Technology Stock Up 1.3%

The firm has a market cap of $90.15 billion, a PE ratio of 59.62 and a beta of 1.69. 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 firm has a 50 day moving average price of $38.66 and a 200-day moving average price of $28.83.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.17 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $5.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.32 billion. ASE Technology had a net margin of 7.03% and a return on equity of 13.48%. Research analysts forecast that ASE Technology Holding Co., Ltd. will post 0.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ASE Technology Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared an annual dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 7th. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 6th will be issued a dividend of $0.4171 per share. This is a boost from ASE Technology’s previous annual dividend of $0.36. The ex-dividend date is Monday, July 6th. This represents a yield of 96.0%. ASE Technology’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 45.59%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ASE Technology

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of ASX. Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its position 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 purchasing an additional 1,997,888 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its holdings in ASE Technology by 14.3% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 10,607,588 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $170,782,000 after buying an additional 1,330,580 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE raised its stake in 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 buying an additional 846,300 shares in the last quarter. UBS Group AG raised its stake in ASE Technology by 11.4% in the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Rafferty Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in 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 worth $76,361,000 after buying an additional 2,491,918 shares during the last quarter. 6.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.