Yousif Capital Management LLC Reduces Holdings in Axcelis Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:ACLS)

Yousif Capital Management LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Axcelis Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:ACLS) by 2.5% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 12,028 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 310 shares during the quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Axcelis Technologies were worth $597,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in ACLS. Signaturefd LLC increased its stake in Axcelis Technologies by 90.6% during the fourth quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 364 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 173 shares during the period. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its stake in Axcelis Technologies by 118.7% during the 1st quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 584 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 317 shares in the last quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Axcelis Technologies by 1,415.2% in the 4th quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 500 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 467 shares during the last quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Axcelis Technologies by 184.3% in the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 668 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $47,000 after buying an additional 433 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quarry LP boosted its stake in Axcelis Technologies by 1,387.5% during the 4th quarter. Quarry LP now owns 714 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $50,000 after purchasing an additional 666 shares during the period. 89.98% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, B. Riley increased their price objective on Axcelis Technologies from $58.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $136.00.

Axcelis Technologies Stock Performance

NASDAQ:ACLS opened at $66.02 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 4.08, a current ratio of 5.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $57.47 and its 200-day simple moving average is $61.47. Axcelis Technologies, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $40.40 and a fifty-two week high of $158.61. The stock has a market cap of $2.12 billion, a PE ratio of 12.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.49 and a beta of 1.52.

Axcelis Technologies (NASDAQ:ACLS) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The semiconductor company reported $1.04 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.39 by $0.65. The company had revenue of $192.56 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $184.86 million. Axcelis Technologies had a return on equity of 18.55% and a net margin of 18.58%. Axcelis Technologies’s quarterly revenue was down 23.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.57 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Axcelis Technologies, Inc. will post 2.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Axcelis Technologies announced that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, March 12th that authorizes the company to repurchase $100.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the semiconductor company to buy up to 5.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Axcelis Technologies

In other news, Director John T. Kurtzweil sold 1,682 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.93, for a total transaction of $104,166.26. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 35,050 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,170,646.50. The trade was a 4.58% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders own 0.48% of the company’s stock.

Axcelis Technologies Company Profile

Axcelis Technologies, Inc designs, manufactures, and services ion implantation and other processing equipment used in the fabrication of semiconductor chips in the United States, Europe, and Asia Pacific. The company offers high energy, high current, and medium current implanters for various application requirements.