ASE Technology Holding Co., Ltd. (NYSE:ASX) Short Interest Up 18.2% in April

Key Points

• Short interest jumped 18.2% in April to 5,671,154 shares as of April 15, equal to about 0.3% of shares short and a short-interest ratio of 0.9 days based on average daily volume.
• Q1 results beat expectations — ASE reported $0.20 EPS vs. $0.17 expected and $5.43 billion in revenue vs. $5.28 billion, with a 6.31% net margin and 12.06% return on equity.
• Analyst sentiment remains a consensus Hold (one Buy, two Holds) despite recent upgrades, including Wall Street Zen to Buy and Zacks moving from Strong Sell to Hold.

ASE Technology Holding Co., Ltd. (NYSE:ASX - Get Free Report) was the target of a significant increase in short interest during the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totaling 5,671,154 shares, an increase of 18.2% from the March 31st total of 4,796,241 shares. Currently, 0.3% of the company's stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 6,064,222 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 0.9 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have commented on ASX. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of ASE Technology from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Sunday, April 5th. Weiss Ratings restated a "hold (c)" rating on shares of ASE Technology in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of ASE Technology from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, April 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold".

ASE Technology Stock Performance

Shares of ASX stock opened at $30.58 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $24.24 and a 200-day moving average of $19.26. ASE Technology has a 52 week low of $8.46 and a 52 week high of $32.31. The company has a quick ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58. The company has a market cap of $67.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.46.

ASE Technology (NYSE:ASX - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The semiconductor company reported $0.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.17 by $0.03. ASE Technology had a net margin of 6.31% and a return on equity of 12.06%. The business had revenue of $5.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.28 billion. On average, equities analysts forecast that ASE Technology will post 0.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ASE Technology

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of ASX. Parallel Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of ASE Technology by 1.9% during the 4th 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 grew its position in ASE Technology by 5.5% during the fourth quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 11,223 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $181,000 after buying an additional 589 shares in the last quarter. Vest Financial LLC increased its stake in ASE Technology by 5.2% in 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. raised its holdings in shares of ASE Technology by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 120,598 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $1,942,000 after acquiring an additional 643 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of ASE Technology by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC now owns 36,780 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $408,000 after acquiring an additional 650 shares in the last quarter. 6.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.

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