ASE Technology (NYSE:ASX) Stock Sees Heavy Call Option Buying

ASE Technology Holding Co., Ltd. (NYSE:ASX) saw some unusual options trading activity on Monday. Stock traders bought 55,471 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 719% compared to the average volume of 6,771 call options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of ASX. Ancora Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in ASE Technology in the 2nd quarter worth about $33,000. IFP Advisors Inc raised its holdings in shares of ASE Technology by 107.7% during the second quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 947 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $43,000 after acquiring an additional 491 shares during the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of ASE Technology by 135.4% during the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 1,438 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 827 shares during the last quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd lifted its position in shares of ASE Technology by 180,900.0% in the fourth quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 1,810 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 1,809 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Polaris Financial Partners purchased a new position in shares of ASE Technology in the third quarter valued at approximately $91,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 6.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have weighed in on ASX shares. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of ASE Technology from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, September 19th. Weiss Ratings upgraded ASE Technology from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded ASE Technology from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and two have given a Buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, ASE Technology has a consensus rating of “Buy”.

ASE Technology Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ASX traded up $0.95 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $47.38. 3,825,601 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 8,484,306. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $40.21 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $36.32. ASE Technology has a 1 year low of $11.21 and a 1 year high of $47.93. The company has a market cap of $105.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 55.12 and a beta of 1.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a current ratio of 1.07.

ASE Technology (NYSE:ASX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The semiconductor company reported $0.29 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.23 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $81.66 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.96 billion. ASE Technology had a net margin of 8.52% and a return on equity of 16.12%. Equities analysts predict that ASE Technology will post 1.23 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ASE Technology Company Profile

ASE Technology Holding Co, Ltd. is a Taiwan-based provider of semiconductor manufacturing services. Through its subsidiaries, the company offers outsourced semiconductor assembly and testing (OSAT) services, helping chip manufacturers package and test integrated circuits before they are incorporated into electronic products.

Its services include wafer probing, wafer bumping, flip-chip and wire-bond packaging, system-in-package and other advanced packaging technologies, as well as final testing and related engineering services.