Short Interest in AXT, Inc. (NASDAQ:AXTI) Expands By 9.0%

AXT, Inc. (NASDAQ:AXTI) saw a significant growth in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,930,000 shares, a growth of 9.0% from the March 15th total of 1,770,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 2,380,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 0.8 days. Approximately 4.8% of the company’s shares are short sold.

AXT Price Performance

NASDAQ AXTI opened at $3.04 on Wednesday. AXT has a 12 month low of $1.89 and a 12 month high of $5.64. The company has a market capitalization of $134.52 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -7.07 and a beta of 2.24. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $3.90 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $2.89.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on AXTI shares. B. Riley upped their target price on shares of AXT from $3.80 to $5.50 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 5th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of AXT from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 2nd. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $5.00 target price on shares of AXT in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Craig Hallum upped their target price on shares of AXT from $3.75 to $5.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $6.00 target price on shares of AXT in a research note on Monday, April 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $5.30.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Keystone Wealth Services LLC lifted its position in shares of AXT by 30.4% in the 1st quarter. Keystone Wealth Services LLC now owns 193,890 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $890,000 after buying an additional 45,204 shares during the last quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. bought a new position in shares of AXT in the 4th quarter worth about $96,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd lifted its position in shares of AXT by 46.6% in the 4th quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 37,387 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $90,000 after buying an additional 11,892 shares during the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of AXT by 28.7% in the 4th quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 11,200 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 2,500 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of AXT by 14.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,275,457 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $5,461,000 after buying an additional 285,113 shares during the last quarter. 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.