AXT, Inc. (NASDAQ:AXTI) Short Interest Down 10.4% in April

AXT, Inc. (NASDAQ:AXTI) was the recipient of a significant drop in short interest during the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,730,000 shares, a drop of 10.4% from the March 31st total of 1,930,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 2,490,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 0.7 days. Currently, 4.3% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AXTI has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. StockNews.com cut AXT from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 2nd. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $5.00 target price on shares of AXT in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Craig Hallum upped their price target on shares of AXT from $3.75 to $5.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note 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. Finally, Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $6.00 price objective on shares of AXT in a research report on Monday, April 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $5.38.

AXT Stock Performance

AXTI stock opened at $3.00 on Wednesday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $4.00 and a 200-day moving average price of $2.92. The company has a market capitalization of $132.75 million, a P/E ratio of -6.98 and a beta of 2.24. AXT has a 52-week low of $1.89 and a 52-week high of $5.64.

AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 22nd. The semiconductor company reported ($0.09) EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.14) by $0.05. The business had revenue of $20.43 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.62 million. AXT had a negative net margin of 23.59% and a negative return on equity of 7.80%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that AXT will post -0.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AXT

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Byrne Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in AXT during the 1st quarter valued at about $28,000. Keystone Wealth Services LLC grew its holdings in shares of AXT by 30.4% in the first quarter. Keystone Wealth Services LLC now owns 193,890 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $890,000 after purchasing an additional 45,204 shares in the last quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. purchased a new position in AXT during the fourth quarter worth $96,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd lifted its stake in AXT by 46.6% in the fourth quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 37,387 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $90,000 after acquiring an additional 11,892 shares during the period. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of AXT by 28.7% during the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 11,200 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 2,500 shares during the last quarter. 49.52% of the stock is currently owned by 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.