ASE Technology Holding Co., Ltd. (NYSE:ASX) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

Key Points

• Short interest in ASE Technology surged 82.0% in June, reaching 18.2 million shares, though the short-interest ratio remains relatively low at 1.4 days.
• Analyst sentiment is generally positive, with the stock carrying an average “Buy” rating after recent upgrades from Zacks Research and Wall Street Zen.
• The company reported solid quarterly results and raised its dividend, beating EPS and revenue estimates in its latest earnings report and increasing its annual payout to $0.4171 from $0.36.

ASE Technology Holding Co., Ltd. (NYSE:ASX - Get Free Report) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest in June. As of June 30th, there was short interest totaling 18,168,448 shares, a growth of 82.0% from the June 15th total of 9,979,962 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 13,273,172 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.4 days. Currently, 1.1% of the company's stock are sold short.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently commented on ASX. Weiss Ratings reissued a "hold (c+)" rating on shares of ASE Technology in a research report on Tuesday, June 9th. Zacks Research raised shares of ASE Technology from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded ASE Technology from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Sunday, April 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has given a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Buy".

Hedge Funds Weigh In On ASE Technology

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. TT International Asset Management LTD grew its position in ASE Technology by 69.8% in the fourth quarter. TT International Asset Management LTD now owns 1,236,070 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $19,843,000 after acquiring an additional 508,291 shares in the last quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new stake in ASE Technology during the first quarter valued at about $1,341,000. ABC Arbitrage SA bought a new stake in ASE Technology during the first quarter worth about $1,308,000. UBS Group AG lifted its stake in 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 last quarter. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in ASE Technology by 85.0% in the fourth quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 271,407 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $4,370,000 after buying an additional 124,662 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 6.80% of the company's stock.

ASE Technology Stock Down 3.3%

ASE Technology stock opened at $39.39 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $38.32 and a 200 day simple moving average of $28.19. ASE Technology has a 1-year low of $9.30 and a 1-year high of $45.51. The firm 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.

ASE Technology (NYSE:ASX - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 7.03% and a return on equity of 13.48%. The company had revenue of $5.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.32 billion. On average, analysts predict that ASE Technology will post 0.84 earnings per share for the current year.

ASE Technology Increases Dividend

The firm 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 $0.4171 dividend. This represents a dividend yield of 96.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, July 6th. This is an increase from ASE Technology's previous annual dividend of $0.36. ASE Technology's payout ratio is 45.59%.

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.

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