AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) Earns Outperform Rating from Wedbush

AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reissued by investment analysts at Wedbush in a report issued on Friday,RTT News reports. They presently have a $4.50 target price on the semiconductor company’s stock, down from their prior target price of $5.50. Wedbush’s target price indicates a potential upside of 184.81% from the stock’s previous close.

AXTI has been the topic of a number of other reports. Northland Securities decreased their price target on AXT from $6.00 to $5.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 1st. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $5.00 price target on shares of AXT in a report on Friday. Finally, B. Riley reissued a “buy” rating and set a $6.00 price target (up from $5.50) on shares of AXT in a report on Friday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AXT currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $5.10.

AXT Stock Performance

Shares of AXT stock opened at $1.58 on Friday. AXT has a one year low of $1.56 and a one year high of $5.64. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $2.17 and its 200 day moving average is $2.29. The stock has a market cap of $70.71 million, a P/E ratio of -5.64 and a beta of 2.08.

AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.12) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.04) by ($0.08). The company had revenue of $25.11 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $23.94 million. AXT had a negative return on equity of 5.27% and a negative net margin of 11.70%. Analysts predict that AXT will post -0.12 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AXTI. Pacific Ridge Capital Partners LLC grew its position in shares of AXT by 65.4% during the fourth quarter. Pacific Ridge Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,937,424 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $4,204,000 after purchasing an additional 766,122 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new position in shares of AXT during the fourth quarter valued at about $628,000. Systematic Financial Management LP grew its position in shares of AXT by 13.0% during the third quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP now owns 1,477,169 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $3,575,000 after purchasing an additional 169,406 shares in the last quarter. Kennedy Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of AXT by 13.1% during the fourth quarter. Kennedy Capital Management LLC now owns 915,460 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,987,000 after purchasing an additional 106,121 shares in the last quarter. Finally, D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. grew its position in shares of AXT by 18.9% during the fourth quarter. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. now owns 606,365 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,316,000 after purchasing an additional 96,195 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.