AXT Inc (NASDAQ:AXTI) Stock Now Rated “Hold” by Wall Street Analysts

AXT Inc (NASDAQ:AXTI) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the six analysts that are covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $77.80.

Several research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Weiss Ratings raised shares of AXT from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Friday, August 14th. Needham & Company LLC raised shares of AXT from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $90.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 31st. B. Riley Financial increased their target price on shares of AXT from $55.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 30th. UBS Group set a $90.00 price target on shares of AXT in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded shares of AXT from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 29th.

AXT Trading Down 7.4%

AXTI opened at $47.54 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $65.13 and its 200 day moving average price is $64.46. AXT has a 12-month low of $7.81 and a 12-month high of $143.16. The firm has a market cap of $3.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 105.64 and a beta of 2.01.

AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 29th. The semiconductor company reported $0.41 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.31 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $73.41 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $66.00 million. AXT had a return on equity of 5.21% and a net margin of 18.53%. On average, research analysts forecast that AXT will post 0.80 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at AXT

In related news, Director Leonard Leblanc sold 4,000 shares of AXT stock in a transaction on Monday, August 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $96.07, for a total value of $384,280.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 113,129 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,868,303.03. This trade represents a 3.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 5.97% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AXT

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in AXT in the 2nd quarter valued at about $365,607,000. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its stake in shares of AXT by 112.0% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 776,300 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $44,234,000 after buying an additional 410,181 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP acquired a new position in shares of AXT during the second quarter worth about $25,911,000. Rokos Capital Management LLP acquired a new position in shares of AXT during the first quarter worth about $18,842,000. Finally, Squarepoint Ops LLC increased its stake in shares of AXT by 1,347.0% during the second quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 312,999 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $22,561,000 after buying an additional 291,368 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 49.52% of the company’s stock.

About AXT

AXT, Inc develops and manufactures compound semiconductor substrates used as the foundation for various high-performance electronic and optoelectronic devices. Its principal products include gallium arsenide (GaAs), indium phosphide (InP), and germanium substrates, along with other specialty materials such as gallium antimonide and indium arsenide.

The company’s substrates are used in applications including wireless communications, fiber-optic and data-center networks, lasers, light-emitting diodes, solar cells, consumer electronics, and aerospace and defense systems.