AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) Given Buy Rating at Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed their buy rating on shares of AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) in a research report released on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $5.00 price target on the semiconductor company’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on AXTI. Wedbush reiterated an outperform rating and issued a $6.00 price target on shares of AXT in a research note on Monday, July 29th. StockNews.com cut AXT from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note on Wednesday. Craig Hallum boosted their price target on AXT from $3.75 to $5.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, B. Riley boosted their price target on AXT from $3.80 to $5.50 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Friday, April 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, AXT has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $5.38.

AXT Stock Down 18.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ:AXTI opened at $2.68 on Friday. AXT has a 12-month low of $1.89 and a 12-month high of $5.64. The stock has a market cap of $118.99 million, a PE ratio of -6.70 and a beta of 2.28. The business has a 50 day moving average of $3.56 and a 200-day moving average of $3.51.

AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The semiconductor company reported ($0.04) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.06) by $0.02. The business had revenue of $27.92 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $26.50 million. AXT had a negative return on equity of 5.85% and a negative net margin of 14.75%. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted ($0.12) earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that AXT will post -0.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AXT

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Byrne Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in AXT during the 1st quarter worth approximately $28,000. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of AXT by 28.7% in the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 11,200 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 2,500 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in AXT in the first quarter valued at $52,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. bought a new position in AXT during the 1st quarter worth $77,000. Finally, State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System bought a new position in AXT during the 1st quarter worth $93,000. 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.