AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) Stock Price Down 16% – Should You Sell?

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

Trending Headlines about AXT

Here are the key news stories impacting AXT this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Zacks Research upgraded AXT from “hold” to “strong-buy,” a more bullish recommendation that may attract investor interest. Zacks Research ratings
• Positive Sentiment: Northland Securities raised its earnings forecasts, including FY2026 EPS to $1.15 from $0.81 and FY2027 EPS to $2.29 from $2.03. It also increased estimates for several upcoming quarters, signaling stronger expected earnings growth. AXT analyst estimates
• Positive Sentiment: A Zacks analysis highlighted AXT as a potential AI-infrastructure beneficiary amid demand for semiconductors. Another report cited a 162% year-over-year Q3 revenue increase and a backlog exceeding $500 million, pointing to strong demand for indium phosphide products. Zacks AI stocks analysis AXT Q3 analysis
• Negative Sentiment: The same Q3 analysis cautioned that AXT’s roughly 191% rally has raised valuation concerns, leaving the stock vulnerable if growth or demand expectations disappoint. AXT Q3 analysis

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently weighed in on AXTI shares. B. Riley Financial boosted their target price on AXT from $55.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 30th. Needham & Company LLC upgraded AXT from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $90.00 price target for the company in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Weiss Ratings raised AXT from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Friday, August 14th. UBS Group set a $90.00 price target on AXT in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of AXT from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, AXT currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $77.80.

AXT Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $2.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 86.40 and a beta of 2.01. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $64.00 and a 200 day moving average of $64.62.

AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 29th. The semiconductor company reported $0.41 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.31 by $0.10. AXT had a net margin of 18.53% and a return on equity of 5.21%. The company had revenue of $73.41 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $66.00 million. Research analysts predict that AXT Inc will post 1.11 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other AXT news, Director Leonard Leblanc sold 4,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $96.07, for a total value of $384,280.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 113,129 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,868,303.03. This trade represents a 3.42% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders own 5.97% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AXT

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AXTI. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of AXT during the second quarter valued at about $365,607,000. Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new stake in AXT during the second quarter worth about $46,062,000. Wellington Management Group LLP acquired a new stake in shares of AXT during the second quarter worth about $25,911,000. Rokos Capital Management LLP acquired a new stake in shares of AXT during the first quarter worth about $18,842,000. Finally, Squarepoint Ops LLC boosted its stake in shares of AXT by 1,347.0% in the second quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 312,999 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $22,561,000 after purchasing an additional 291,368 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 49.52% of the company’s stock.

About AXT

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.