AXT’s (AXTI) Buy Rating Reiterated at Needham & Company LLC

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

Other analysts have also issued research reports about the company. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $5.50 target price on shares of AXT in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Northland Securities lowered their price objective on shares of AXT from $6.00 to $5.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $5.10.

AXT Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:AXTI opened at $1.58 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $2.17 and its 200-day moving average price is $2.29. The firm has a market capitalization of $70.71 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -6.32 and a beta of 2.08. AXT has a one year low of $1.56 and a one year high of $5.64.

AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.12) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.04) by ($0.08). AXT had a negative net margin of 10.73% and a negative return on equity of 4.58%. The firm had revenue of $25.11 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $23.94 million. As a group, equities research analysts expect that AXT will post -0.22 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AXT

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Formidable Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of AXT by 40.7% in the fourth quarter. Formidable Asset Management LLC now owns 43,500 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $94,000 after purchasing an additional 12,575 shares during the last quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP increased its position in shares of AXT by 5.0% in the fourth quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP now owns 1,551,380 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $3,366,000 after acquiring an additional 74,211 shares during the period. Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new position in shares of AXT in the fourth quarter valued at about $628,000. Man Group plc bought a new position in shares of AXT during the fourth quarter valued at about $67,000. Finally, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of AXT by 5.9% during the fourth quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 302,936 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $657,000 after purchasing an additional 16,842 shares during the period. 49.52% of the stock is 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.