AXT’s (AXTI) “Buy” Rating Reaffirmed at B. Riley

B. Riley reiterated their buy rating on shares of AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) in a research note published on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a $6.00 price target on the semiconductor company’s stock, up from their prior price target of $5.50.

Several other research analysts have also recently weighed in on AXTI. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $5.50 price objective on shares of AXT in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Northland Securities lowered their price target on shares of AXT from $6.00 to $5.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $5.00 price objective on shares of AXT in a research note on Friday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $5.10.

AXT Stock Performance

Shares of AXTI stock opened at $1.58 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $70.71 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -6.32 and a beta of 2.08. AXT has a 52 week low of $1.56 and a 52 week high of $5.64. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $2.17 and a 200 day simple moving average of $2.29.

AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.12) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.04) by ($0.08). The firm had revenue of $25.11 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $23.94 million. AXT had a negative net margin of 10.73% and a negative return on equity of 4.58%. Sell-side analysts forecast that AXT will post -0.22 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Bleakley Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in AXT during the fourth quarter worth about $29,000. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of AXT by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 464,022 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,123,000 after acquiring an additional 7,577 shares in the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC increased its stake in AXT by 5.2% in the fourth quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 145,664 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $316,000 after acquiring an additional 7,165 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC acquired a new position in AXT during the third quarter valued at approximately $85,000. Finally, Creative Planning bought a new stake in AXT during the third quarter worth $127,000. Institutional investors own 49.52% of the company’s stock.

About AXT

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.