Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. Buys 16,842 Shares of AXT, Inc. (NASDAQ:AXTI)

Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. increased its stake in AXT, Inc. (NASDAQ:AXTI) by 5.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 302,936 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after acquiring an additional 16,842 shares during the period. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc.’s holdings in AXT were worth $657,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Barclays PLC bought a new position in AXT during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $85,000. Bleakley Financial Group LLC bought a new position in AXT during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Empowered Funds LLC raised its position in AXT by 5.2% during the 4th quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 145,664 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $316,000 after purchasing an additional 7,165 shares during the last quarter. White Pine Capital LLC raised its position in AXT by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. White Pine Capital LLC now owns 668,499 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,451,000 after purchasing an additional 5,246 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC bought a new position in AXT during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $54,000. Institutional investors own 49.52% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have commented on AXTI. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $4.50 price target on shares of AXT in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $5.00 target price on shares of AXT in a report on Friday, February 21st. StockNews.com upgraded AXT to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, B. Riley reduced their target price on AXT from $6.00 to $4.50 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $4.75.

AXT Stock Up 2.8%

AXT stock opened at $1.49 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $67.95 million, a P/E ratio of -5.32 and a beta of 1.96. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $1.42 and its 200 day moving average is $1.83. AXT, Inc. has a twelve month low of $1.13 and a twelve month high of $4.03.

AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The semiconductor company reported ($0.20) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.13) by ($0.07). AXT had a negative net margin of 11.70% and a negative return on equity of 5.27%. As a group, equities analysts expect that AXT, Inc. will post -0.12 EPS for the current year.

AXT 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.