AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) Stock Falls 16% – Time to Sell?

AXT Inc (NASDAQ:AXTI) dropped 16% during mid-day trading on Thursday. The company traded as low as $40.42 and last traded at $39.9320. 2,505,977 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 75% from the average daily volume of 10,164,367 shares. The stock had previously closed at $47.54.

More AXT News

Here are the key news stories impacting AXT this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Northland Securities raised its FY2026 EPS forecast to $1.15 from $0.81 and its FY2027 estimate to $2.29 from $2.03. It also lifted forecasts for each quarter from Q4 2026 through Q4 2027, signaling a stronger earnings outlook. Northland Securities estimates
• Negative Sentiment: A Seeking Alpha article reports record Q3 revenue and a positive forward outlook, but its title also notes a rating downgrade—potentially a counterweight to the improved earnings forecasts. The provided article details do not specify the analyst or revised rating. Seeking Alpha article

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on AXTI. B. Riley Financial raised 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 objective on shares of AXT in a report on Friday, July 31st. Zacks Research cut shares of AXT from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 29th. Weiss Ratings upgraded AXT from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Friday, August 14th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC upgraded AXT from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $90.00 target price for the company in a report on Friday, July 31st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, AXT has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $77.80.

AXT Price Performance

The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $65.13 and its 200 day moving average price is $64.46. The firm has a market cap of $2.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 84.07 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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $73.41 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $66.00 million. AXT had a net margin of 18.53% and a return on equity of 5.21%. As a group, analysts forecast that AXT Inc will post 0.80 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Leonard Leblanc sold 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $96.07, for a total transaction of $384,280.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 113,129 shares in the company, valued at $10,868,303.03. This represents a 3.42% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 5.97% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AXT

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of AXTI. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in AXT during the second quarter worth about $365,607,000. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new position in AXT in the second quarter valued at approximately $46,062,000. Wellington Management Group LLP bought a new position in AXT in the second quarter valued at approximately $25,911,000. Rokos Capital Management LLP bought a new position in AXT in the first quarter valued at approximately $18,842,000. Finally, Squarepoint Ops LLC increased its position in shares of AXT by 1,347.0% during the 2nd quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 312,999 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $22,561,000 after purchasing an additional 291,368 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 49.52% of the company’s stock.

AXT Company Profile

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.