Empowered Funds LLC Purchases 7,165 Shares of AXT, Inc. (NASDAQ:AXTI)

Empowered Funds LLC grew its holdings in shares of AXT, Inc. (NASDAQ:AXTI) by 5.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 145,664 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after buying an additional 7,165 shares during the quarter. Empowered Funds LLC owned 0.33% of AXT worth $316,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Bleakley Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AXT during the fourth quarter valued at $29,000. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of AXT by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 464,022 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,123,000 after acquiring an additional 7,577 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC purchased a new stake in AXT in the third quarter valued at about $85,000. Creative Planning purchased a new stake in AXT during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $127,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in AXT by 26.5% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 63,794 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $154,000 after acquiring an additional 13,376 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 49.52% of the company’s stock.

AXT Trading Down 0.4 %

NASDAQ:AXTI opened at $2.29 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average is $2.19 and its two-hundred day moving average is $2.30. The firm has a market cap of $102.48 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -9.16 and a beta of 2.08. AXT, Inc. has a 12-month low of $1.73 and a 12-month high of $5.64.

AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.12) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.04) by ($0.08). AXT had a negative net margin of 10.73% and a negative return on equity of 4.58%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that AXT, Inc. will post -0.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AXTI has been the subject of several research reports. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $5.00 price objective on shares of AXT in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Northland Securities cut their target price on AXT from $6.00 to $5.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $5.50 target price on shares of AXT in a research note on Friday, February 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $5.20.

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.