ASE Technology (NYSE:ASX) Shares Gap Up - What's Next?

Key Points

• ASE Technology shares surged, gapping up from a prior close of $39.93 to an open of $43.40 and last trading around $44.19, a gain of about 10.5% for the day.
• Analyst sentiment is positive, with recent upgrades from Zacks Research and Wall Street Zen helping support a current consensus rating of “Buy.”
• The company also raised its dividend to $0.4171 annually from $0.36, while its latest quarterly results topped estimates on both earnings and revenue.

ASE Technology Holding Co., Ltd. (NYSE:ASX - Get Free Report)'s stock price gapped up before the market opened on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $39.93, but opened at $43.40. ASE Technology shares last traded at $44.1940, with a volume of 1,741,665 shares traded.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on ASX. Weiss Ratings reiterated a "hold (c+)" rating on shares of ASE Technology in a research report on Tuesday, June 9th. Zacks Research upgraded ASE Technology from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised ASE Technology from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Sunday, April 5th. One investment 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, ASE Technology presently has a consensus rating of "Buy".

ASE Technology Stock Up 10.5%

The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $37.24 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $27.10. The stock has a market capitalization of $98.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 64.71 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 - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The semiconductor company reported $0.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.17 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $5.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $5.32 billion. ASE Technology had a return on equity of 13.48% and a net margin of 7.03%. On average, equities research analysts expect that ASE Technology Holding Co., Ltd. will post 0.84 earnings per share for the current year.

ASE Technology Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed an annual dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 7th. Stockholders of record on Monday, July 6th will be paid a $0.4171 dividend. This is an increase from ASE Technology's previous annual dividend of $0.36. This represents a dividend yield of 96.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, July 6th. ASE Technology's payout ratio is currently 45.59%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On ASE Technology

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of ASX. Rafferty Asset Management LLC raised its position in ASE Technology by 50.9% during the 2nd quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 7,392,190 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $76,361,000 after purchasing an additional 2,491,918 shares during the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of ASE Technology by 11.1% in the fourth quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 20,010,829 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $322,174,000 after buying an additional 1,997,888 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC raised its position in shares of ASE Technology by 130.8% during the third quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 3,169,267 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $35,147,000 after acquiring an additional 1,796,357 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE raised its position in shares of ASE Technology by 18.8% during the second quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 8,815,184 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $91,061,000 after acquiring an additional 1,397,206 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted its stake in shares of ASE Technology by 14.3% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 10,607,588 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $170,782,000 after acquiring an additional 1,330,580 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 6.80% of the company's stock.

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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