AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) Rating Lowered to Sell at StockNews.com

AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) was downgraded by research analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report issued on Wednesday.

A number of other equities research analysts have also issued reports on AXTI. B. Riley boosted their price target on shares of AXT from $3.80 to $5.50 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 5th. Craig Hallum upped their price objective on shares of AXT from $3.75 to $5.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $5.00 price objective on shares of AXT in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $6.00 price objective on shares of AXT in a research note on Monday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $5.38.

AXT Price Performance

AXTI stock opened at $3.29 on Wednesday. AXT has a 52-week low of $1.89 and a 52-week high of $5.64. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $3.56 and its 200-day simple moving average is $3.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $146.08 million, a P/E ratio of -8.32 and a beta of 2.29.

AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The semiconductor company reported ($0.05) earnings per share (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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $21.00 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned ($0.08) earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that AXT will post -0.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in shares of AXT by 866.1% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 256,570 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $616,000 after purchasing an additional 230,013 shares during the last quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd increased its stake 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 worth $530,000 after purchasing an additional 78,001 shares during the last quarter. 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. Brown Advisory Inc. acquired a new position in shares of AXT during the 4th quarter worth $50,000. Finally, ClariVest Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of AXT during the 1st quarter worth $743,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 49.52% of the company’s stock.

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.