ASE Technology (NYSE:ASX) Shares Gap Down – Should You Sell?

ASE Technology Holding Co., Ltd. (NYSE:ASX) gapped down before the market opened on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $43.32, but opened at $40.02. ASE Technology shares last traded at $39.4050, with a volume of 2,232,576 shares traded.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ASX has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Wall Street Zen raised shares of ASE Technology from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Sunday, April 5th. Zacks Research raised shares of ASE Technology from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of ASE Technology in a research report 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 issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, ASE Technology currently has an average rating of “Buy”.

ASE Technology Price Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $87.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 57.92 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 company has a 50 day moving average price of $36.91 and a 200 day moving average price of $26.75.

ASE Technology (NYSE:ASX) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $5.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.32 billion. ASE Technology had a return on equity of 13.48% and a net margin of 7.03%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that ASE Technology Holding Co., Ltd. will post 0.84 earnings per share for the current year.

ASE Technology Increases Dividend

The business 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 a boost from ASE Technology’s previous annual dividend of $0.36. This represents a yield of 96.0%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, July 6th. ASE Technology’s dividend payout ratio is currently 38.24%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On ASE Technology

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its stake in 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 buying an additional 1,997,888 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley increased its holdings in shares of ASE Technology by 14.3% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 10,607,588 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $170,782,000 after acquiring an additional 1,330,580 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE raised its position in shares of ASE Technology by 9.6% during the third quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 9,661,484 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $107,146,000 after purchasing an additional 846,300 shares during the period. UBS Group AG raised its position in shares of ASE Technology by 11.4% during the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 9,038,322 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $145,517,000 after purchasing an additional 922,692 shares during the period. Finally, Rafferty Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $76,361,000 after purchasing an additional 2,491,918 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 6.80% of the company’s stock.

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.