AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) Upgraded by StockNews.com to Hold

StockNews.com upgraded shares of AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a report released on Monday morning.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. B. Riley increased their target price on AXT from $3.80 to $5.50 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Friday, April 5th. Craig Hallum raised their price objective on AXT from $3.75 to $5.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a buy rating and issued a $5.00 target price on shares of AXT in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, Wedbush reiterated an outperform rating and issued a $6.00 target price on shares of AXT in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $5.38.

AXT Price Performance

NASDAQ AXTI opened at $3.45 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $153.18 million, a PE ratio of -8.62 and a beta of 2.29. AXT has a one year low of $1.89 and a one year high of $5.64. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $3.48 and its 200 day simple moving average is $3.36.

AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The semiconductor company reported ($0.05) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.08) by $0.03. AXT had a negative net margin of 21.01% and a negative return on equity of 7.40%. The business had revenue of $22.69 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $21.00 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned ($0.08) EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that AXT will post -0.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AXT

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in shares of AXT by 866.1% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 256,570 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $616,000 after buying an additional 230,013 shares in the last quarter. Brookstone Capital Management bought a new stake in shares of AXT during the fourth quarter worth $37,000. First Wilshire Securities Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of AXT by 30.8% during the fourth 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 period. Brown Advisory Inc. acquired a new position in shares of AXT during the fourth quarter worth $50,000. Finally, Quadrature Capital Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of AXT by 46.6% during the fourth quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 37,387 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $90,000 after purchasing an additional 11,892 shares during the period. 49.52% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.