Needham & Company LLC Reaffirms Buy Rating for AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI)

Needham & Company LLC restated their buy rating on shares of AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) in a research note published on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a $5.00 price target on the semiconductor company’s stock.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. StockNews.com cut shares of AXT from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research report on Saturday, March 2nd. B. Riley increased their target price on shares of AXT from $3.80 to $5.50 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Friday, April 5th. Craig Hallum upgraded shares of AXT from a hold rating to a buy rating and increased their target price for the company from $2.25 to $3.75 in a research report on Friday, February 23rd. Finally, Wedbush restated an outperform rating and set a $6.00 price objective on shares of AXT in a research report on Monday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, AXT has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $5.30.

AXT Stock Up 6.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ AXTI opened at $3.80 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $3.80 and a 200-day simple moving average of $2.85. The stock has a market capitalization of $168.15 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -8.84 and a beta of 2.24. AXT has a 52 week low of $1.89 and a 52 week high of $5.64.

AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The semiconductor company reported ($0.09) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.14) by $0.05. The business had revenue of $20.43 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.62 million. AXT had a negative net margin of 23.59% and a negative return on equity of 7.80%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that AXT will post -0.1 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AXT

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of AXTI. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its position in AXT by 28.7% during 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. Brookstone Capital Management purchased a new position in AXT during the fourth quarter worth about $37,000. Point72 Middle East FZE purchased a new position in AXT during the second quarter worth about $37,000. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new position in AXT during the fourth quarter worth about $37,000. Finally, James Investment Research Inc. purchased a new position in AXT during the third quarter worth about $38,000. 49.52% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.