ASE Technology (NYSE:ASX) Shares Gap Down – Here’s Why

ASE Technology Holding Co., Ltd. (NYSE:ASX) shares 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 trading hands.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

ASE Technology Trading Up 0.9%

The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $37.24 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $27.10. The stock has a market cap of $88.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 58.82 and a beta of 1.69. The company has a quick ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53.

ASE Technology (NYSE:ASX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The semiconductor company reported $0.20 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.17 by $0.03. ASE Technology had a return on equity of 13.48% and a net margin of 7.03%.The company had revenue of $5.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.32 billion. As a group, analysts expect that ASE Technology Holding Co., Ltd. will post 0.84 EPS for the current year.

ASE Technology Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced an annual dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 7th. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 6th will be given 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 45.59%.

Institutional Trading of ASE Technology

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its holdings in ASE Technology by 16.9% in the 1st quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 13,425 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $118,000 after buying an additional 1,943 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its position in ASE Technology by 15.6% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 5,775,272 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $50,591,000 after acquiring an additional 780,651 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in ASE Technology by 16.3% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,576 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $140,000 after acquiring an additional 1,901 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc increased its position in ASE Technology by 261.9% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 15,647 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $162,000 after acquiring an additional 11,324 shares during the period. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. raised its stake in shares of ASE Technology by 537.5% during the second quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 4,928 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $51,000 after acquiring an additional 4,155 shares during the last quarter. 6.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.