AXT’s (AXTI) “Buy” Rating Reaffirmed at Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC reissued their buy rating on shares of AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) in a research report sent to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $5.00 price target on the semiconductor company’s stock.

A number of other research analysts have also recently weighed in on AXTI. StockNews.com downgraded shares of AXT from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $6.00 price objective on shares of AXT in a research report on Monday, July 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, AXT currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $5.30.

AXT Price Performance

Shares of AXTI stock opened at $2.01 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $89.40 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -8.04 and a beta of 2.22. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $2.44 and a 200-day moving average price of $3.01. AXT has a 1 year low of $1.93 and a 1 year high of $5.64.

AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The semiconductor company reported ($0.07) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.06) by ($0.01). AXT had a negative net margin of 10.73% and a negative return on equity of 4.58%. The company had revenue of $23.65 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.98 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted ($0.14) earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that AXT will post -0.19 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AXT

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AXTI. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in AXT by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,296,204 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $10,540,000 after acquiring an additional 20,747 shares during the last quarter. Kennedy Capital Management LLC lifted its position in AXT by 9.2% during the first quarter. Kennedy Capital Management LLC now owns 605,642 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $2,780,000 after purchasing an additional 50,975 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its stake in shares of AXT by 1,142.1% in the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 377,600 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,276,000 after buying an additional 347,200 shares in the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of AXT by 833.3% in the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 272,416 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $919,000 after buying an additional 243,226 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Keystone Wealth Services LLC increased its holdings in shares of AXT by 4.3% in the 2nd quarter. Keystone Wealth Services LLC now owns 202,223 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $684,000 after buying an additional 8,333 shares during the last quarter. 49.52% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

AXT Company Profile

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.