AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) Upgraded at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research report sent to investors on Saturday morning.

A number of other equities research analysts have also weighed in on the stock. Northland Securities set a $10.00 target price on shares of AXT in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of AXT in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Needham & Company LLC increased their target price on AXT from $5.00 to $10.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 31st. Wedbush set a $7.00 price target on AXT and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Finally, B. Riley raised their price objective on shares of AXT from $4.00 to $9.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 31st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, AXT has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $9.00.

AXT Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AXTI opened at $9.34 on Friday. AXT has a 1 year low of $1.13 and a 1 year high of $11.88. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $6.59 and a 200 day moving average of $3.75. The stock has a market cap of $435.46 million, a P/E ratio of -16.98 and a beta of 2.33.

AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.04) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.12) by $0.08. AXT had a negative return on equity of 11.38% and a negative net margin of 27.68%.The company had revenue of $27.96 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $19.85 million. Research analysts expect that AXT will post -0.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at AXT

In other AXT news, Director Leonard J. Leblanc sold 3,637 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $8.41, for a total value of $30,587.17. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 118,875 shares in the company, valued at approximately $999,738.75. This represents a 2.97% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director David C. Chang sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $8.94, for a total value of $894,000.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 207,744 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,857,231.36. This represents a 32.49% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 216,767 shares of company stock valued at $1,960,808 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 8.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AXTI. Algert Global LLC bought a new stake in shares of AXT during the first quarter valued at approximately $31,000. XTX Topco Ltd purchased a new stake in AXT in the 2nd quarter worth $42,000. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of AXT during the 3rd quarter valued at about $52,000. Atlas Brown Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of AXT by 100.0% during the 2nd quarter. Atlas Brown Inc. now owns 39,150 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $82,000 after purchasing an additional 19,575 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Creative Planning purchased a new position in shares of AXT during the second quarter valued at about $86,000. 49.52% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.