Assenagon Asset Management S.A. Grows Position in AXT, Inc. (NASDAQ:AXTI)

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in AXT, Inc. (NASDAQ:AXTI) by 26.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 63,794 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after buying an additional 13,376 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. owned approximately 0.14% of AXT worth $154,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Acadian Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of AXT by 833.3% in the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 272,416 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $919,000 after purchasing an additional 243,226 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its stake in AXT by 1,142.1% during the second 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 during the last quarter. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of AXT in the 2nd quarter worth $468,000. Bailard Inc. purchased a new position in shares of AXT during the 2nd quarter worth $122,000. Finally, Quadrature Capital Ltd boosted its position in shares of AXT by 208.6% during the 1st quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 115,388 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $530,000 after acquiring an additional 78,001 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 49.52% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Northland Securities reduced their target price on shares of AXT from $6.00 to $5.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $6.00 price target on shares of AXT in a report on Monday, July 29th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $5.00 price objective on shares of AXT in a report on Friday. Finally, StockNews.com cut AXT from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $5.30.

AXT Stock Performance

AXT stock opened at $2.11 on Monday. AXT, Inc. has a 1 year low of $1.89 and a 1 year high of $5.64. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $2.46 and its 200-day simple moving average is $3.01. The company has a market capitalization of $93.85 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -8.44 and a beta of 2.22.

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

AXT 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.