Investors Purchase High Volume of ASE Technology Call Options (NYSE:ASX)

ASE Technology Holding Co., Ltd. (NYSE:ASX) saw some unusual options trading on Tuesday. Stock traders bought 46,394 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 566% compared to the average daily volume of 6,971 call options.

ASE Technology Trading Down 9.3%

Shares of ASE Technology stock traded down $3.73 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $36.18. 5,700,223 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,972,607. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 1.07 and a quick ratio of 0.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $80.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.22 and a beta of 1.71. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $39.11 and its 200 day moving average price is $31.20. ASE Technology has a 1-year low of $9.52 and a 1-year high of $45.51.

ASE Technology (NYSE:ASX) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The semiconductor company reported $0.29 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.23 by $0.06. ASE Technology had a net margin of 8.52% and a return on equity of 16.12%. The firm had revenue of $81.66 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.96 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that ASE Technology will post 1.21 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ASE Technology Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed an annual dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 7th. Investors of record on Monday, July 6th were given a $0.4171 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, July 6th. This represents a dividend yield of 96.0%. This is a boost from ASE Technology’s previous annual dividend of $0.36. ASE Technology’s payout ratio is presently 34.88%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ASX has been the subject of a number of research reports. Weiss Ratings upgraded ASE Technology from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. Zacks Research raised shares of ASE Technology from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and two have given a Buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, ASE Technology presently has a consensus rating of “Buy”.

Institutional Trading of ASE Technology

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Parallel Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of ASE Technology by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 25,975 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $418,000 after purchasing an additional 482 shares in the last quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC boosted its position in ASE Technology by 5.5% during the 4th quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 11,223 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $181,000 after acquiring an additional 589 shares during the last quarter. Vest Financial LLC boosted its position in ASE Technology by 5.2% during the 4th quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 12,954 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $209,000 after acquiring an additional 637 shares during the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of ASE Technology by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 120,598 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,942,000 after acquiring an additional 643 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Transamerica Financial Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of ASE Technology by 24.8% in the fourth quarter. Transamerica Financial Advisors LLC now owns 3,435 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $55,000 after purchasing an additional 683 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.