AXT’s (AXTI) “Buy” Rating Reiterated at Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC reiterated their buy rating on shares of AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) in a research note issued to investors on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a $5.00 price objective on the semiconductor company’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts also recently commented on AXTI. Craig Hallum upped their price objective on shares of AXT from $3.75 to $5.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Wedbush restated an outperform rating and issued a $6.00 price objective on shares of AXT in a research report on Monday, April 8th. B. Riley lifted their price objective on AXT from $3.80 to $5.50 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Friday, April 5th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded AXT from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note on Saturday, March 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $5.38.

AXT Stock Up 20.8 %

NASDAQ AXTI opened at $3.66 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $4.03 and its 200 day moving average price is $2.94. The firm has a market cap of $161.96 million, a P/E ratio of -9.15 and a beta of 2.28. AXT has a 52-week low of $1.89 and a 52-week high of $5.64.

AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The semiconductor company reported ($0.05) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.08) by $0.03. AXT had a negative return on equity of 7.36% and a negative net margin of 21.01%. The company had revenue of $22.69 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $21.00 million. During the same period last year, the business posted ($0.08) EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that AXT will post -0.1 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of AXT by 28.7% during the 4th quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 11,200 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 2,500 shares in the last quarter. Byrne Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in AXT during the first quarter worth $28,000. Brookstone Capital Management purchased a new stake in AXT during the fourth quarter worth $37,000. James Investment Research Inc. acquired a new stake in AXT in the third quarter valued at $38,000. Finally, Brown Advisory Inc. purchased a new position in shares of AXT in the fourth quarter valued at $50,000. 49.52% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.