Short Interest in AXT, Inc. (NASDAQ:AXTI) Declines By 9.2%

AXT, Inc. (NASDAQ:AXTI) was the target of a significant drop in short interest in the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 877,800 shares, a drop of 9.2% from the August 15th total of 967,200 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 268,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.3 days. Approximately 2.1% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AXTI has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $5.00 target price on shares of AXT in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. StockNews.com cut AXT from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $6.00 target price on shares of AXT in a research report on Monday, July 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $5.38.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AXTI. Brown Advisory Inc. bought a new position in shares of AXT in the fourth quarter valued at $50,000. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its position in shares of AXT by 47.0% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 465,948 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,118,000 after acquiring an additional 149,048 shares during the period. First Wilshire Securities Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of AXT by 30.8% during the 4th quarter. First Wilshire Securities Management Inc. now owns 3,306,715 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $7,936,000 after purchasing an additional 779,548 shares during the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of AXT by 28.7% in the 4th quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 11,200 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 2,500 shares during the period. Finally, Quadrature Capital Ltd lifted its stake in AXT by 46.6% in the 4th quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 37,387 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $90,000 after purchasing an additional 11,892 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 49.52% of the company’s stock.

AXT Trading Down 1.3 %

Shares of AXTI stock opened at $2.32 on Tuesday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $2.89 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $3.46. AXT has a 1 year low of $1.89 and a 1 year high of $5.64. The firm has a market capitalization of $103.01 million, a P/E ratio of -5.80 and a beta of 2.23.

AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The semiconductor company reported ($0.04) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.06) by $0.02. AXT had a negative return on equity of 5.87% and a negative net margin of 14.75%. The business had revenue of $27.92 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $26.50 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned ($0.12) earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that AXT will post -0.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About AXT

AXT, Inc designs, develops, manufactures, and distributes compound and single element semiconductor substrates. The company offers indium phosphide for use in data center connectivity using light/lasers, high-speed data transfer in data centers, 5G communications, fiber optic lasers and detectors, consumer devices, passive optical networks, silicon photonics, photonic integrated circuits, thermo-photovoltaics, RF amplifier and switching, infrared light-emitting diode (LEDS) motion control, lidar for robotics and autonomous vehicles, and infrared thermal imaging.