AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) Trading 4.8% Higher – What’s Next?

Shares of AXT Inc (NASDAQ:AXTI) shot up 4.8% on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $76.46 and last traded at $76.47. 4,126,692 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 60% from the average session volume of 10,239,283 shares. The stock had previously closed at $72.98.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on AXTI shares. B. Riley Financial cut their price objective on AXT from $73.00 to $52.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. Zacks Research raised shares of AXT from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. UBS Group set a $90.00 target price on shares of AXT in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of AXT from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Friday, August 14th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC upgraded shares of AXT from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $90.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $77.00.

AXT Stock Up 7.3%

The firm has a market cap of $5.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3,927.55 and a beta of 1.92. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $64.48 and a 200 day moving average of $73.71.

AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The semiconductor company reported $0.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.07 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $47.59 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $34.08 million. AXT had a return on equity of 0.96% and a net margin of 3.23%.AXT has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 0.300-0.320 EPS. Equities analysts expect that AXT Inc will post 0.8 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at AXT

In other AXT news, Director Leonard Leblanc sold 4,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $96.07, for a total value of $384,280.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 113,129 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,868,303.03. This trade represents a 3.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 5.97% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AXT

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. NewEdge Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of AXT by 79.0% during the 2nd quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 3,158 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $228,000 after purchasing an additional 1,394 shares in the last quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC grew its stake in AXT by 1,347.0% in the second quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 312,999 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $22,561,000 after acquiring an additional 291,368 shares during the period. Arizona State Retirement System grew its stake in AXT by 10.4% in the second quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 15,928 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,148,000 after acquiring an additional 1,505 shares during the period. Nykredit A S bought a new stake in shares of AXT during the second quarter valued at approximately $152,000. Finally, Amundi bought a new stake in shares of AXT during the second quarter valued at approximately $200,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 49.52% of the company’s stock.

About AXT

AXT, Inc (NASDAQ: AXTI) develops and manufactures compound semiconductor substrates used to produce high-performance electronic and optoelectronic devices. Its product portfolio includes gallium arsenide (GaAs), indium phosphide (InP), and germanium substrates, along with related materials and services supporting semiconductor manufacturing.

The company’s substrates are used in applications such as wireless communications, fiber-optic and data-center networking, optical sensing, laser devices, aerospace and defense systems, and solar cells.