Axcelis Technologies (NASDAQ:ACLS) Rating Increased to Hold at Zacks Research

Axcelis Technologies (NASDAQ:ACLS) was upgraded by research analysts at Zacks Research from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other analysts have also issued reports on ACLS. B. Riley Financial upgraded shares of Axcelis Technologies from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $150.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Axcelis Technologies from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Axcelis Technologies from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, January 3rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Axcelis Technologies in a research note on Monday, December 22nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $116.25.

Axcelis Technologies Trading Up 1.7%

ACLS opened at $133.19 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.14, a P/E/G ratio of 15.66 and a beta of 1.65. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $94.10 and its 200-day moving average is $88.46. Axcelis Technologies has a 52-week low of $44.08 and a 52-week high of $137.44. The company has a quick ratio of 3.11, a current ratio of 4.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Axcelis Technologies (NASDAQ:ACLS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 17th. The semiconductor company reported $1.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.12 by $0.37. The company had revenue of $238.33 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $215.04 million. Axcelis Technologies had a net margin of 14.33% and a return on equity of 13.73%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.54 earnings per share. Axcelis Technologies has set its Q1 2026 guidance at 0.710-0.710 EPS. Analysts expect that Axcelis Technologies will post 2.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Russell Low sold 1,244 shares of Axcelis Technologies stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $94.06, for a total value of $117,010.64. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 132,282 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,442,444.92. The trade was a 0.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Jorge Titinger sold 1,000 shares of Axcelis Technologies stock in a transaction on Friday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.00, for a total transaction of $80,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 6,477 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $518,160. This trade represents a 13.37% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 0.49% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Axcelis Technologies

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ACLS. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its stake in Axcelis Technologies by 1,344.8% during the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 109,628 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $10,388,000 after purchasing an additional 102,040 shares during the last quarter. Summit Global Investments bought a new stake in Axcelis Technologies during the third quarter valued at $789,000. AlphaQuest LLC bought a new stake in Axcelis Technologies during the third quarter valued at $1,347,000. Jackson Creek Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Axcelis Technologies during the third quarter valued at $2,177,000. Finally, Oliver Luxxe Assets LLC bought a new stake in Axcelis Technologies during the fourth quarter valued at $1,451,000. Institutional investors own 89.98% of the company’s stock.

About Axcelis Technologies

Axcelis Technologies, Inc is a leading developer and manufacturer of ion implantation and cleaning equipment used in the fabrication of semiconductor chips. The company specializes in high-current, medium-current and high-energy ion implantation systems, which are critical for introducing precisely controlled dopants into silicon wafers. Axcelis also offers plasma-based cleaning and dry strip tools that support advanced process nodes in logic, memory and power device manufacturing.

The company’s product portfolio encompasses single-wafer and multi-wafer cluster tools designed to deliver high throughput, accuracy and uniformity for semiconductor process steps.