AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) Receives Buy Rating from Needham & Company LLC

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

Other research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Craig Hallum boosted their price objective on shares of AXT from $3.75 to $5.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. B. Riley upped 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. StockNews.com lowered shares of AXT from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Wedbush reissued an outperform rating and issued a $6.00 price objective on shares of AXT in a research report on Monday, July 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, AXT presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $5.38.

AXT Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:AXTI opened at $2.37 on Friday. AXT has a one year low of $1.89 and a one year high of $5.64. The company has a 50 day moving average of $3.55 and a 200-day moving average of $3.52. The stock has a market cap of $105.23 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -5.92 and a beta of 2.28.

AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The semiconductor company reported ($0.04) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.06) by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $27.92 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $26.50 million. AXT had a negative net margin of 14.75% and a negative return on equity of 5.85%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned ($0.12) earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that AXT will post -0.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AXT

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of AXTI. 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 purchasing an additional 230,013 shares during the period. White Pine Capital LLC raised its position in shares of AXT by 35.9% in the fourth quarter. White Pine Capital LLC now owns 612,630 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,470,000 after purchasing an additional 161,893 shares during the period. Brown Advisory Inc. bought a new position in shares of AXT in the fourth quarter valued at about $50,000. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its position in shares of AXT by 47.0% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 465,948 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,118,000 after purchasing an additional 149,048 shares during the period. Finally, First Wilshire Securities Management Inc. raised its position in shares of AXT by 30.8% in the fourth quarter. First Wilshire Securities Management Inc. now owns 3,306,715 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $7,936,000 after purchasing an additional 779,548 shares during the period. 49.52% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.