AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) Shares Gap Up – Should You Buy?

AXT Inc (NASDAQ:AXTI)’s stock price gapped up before the market opened on Wednesday. The stock had previously closed at $39.31, but opened at $43.03. AXT shares last traded at $45.3840, with a volume of 3,253,837 shares.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AXTI has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC raised shares of AXT from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $90.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, July 31st. UBS Group set a $90.00 target price on AXT in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Zacks Research upgraded AXT from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 4th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of AXT in a research report on Thursday. Finally, B. Riley Financial raised their price target on AXT from $55.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 30th. One research 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 given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $77.80.

AXT Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $2.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 96.76 and a beta of 2.01. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $62.81 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $65.12.

AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 29th. The semiconductor company reported $0.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.31 by $0.10. AXT had a net margin of 18.53% and a return on equity of 5.21%. The business had revenue of $73.41 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $66.00 million. As a group, equities analysts forecast that AXT Inc will post 1.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at AXT

In other AXT news, Director Leonard Leblanc sold 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $96.07, for a total transaction of $384,280.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 113,129 shares in the company, valued at $10,868,303.03. This represents a 3.42% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 5.97% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of AXT

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of AXT in the second quarter valued at $365,607,000. Bank of America Corp DE grew its stake in AXT by 112.0% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 776,300 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $44,234,000 after purchasing an additional 410,181 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP purchased a new stake in AXT during the 2nd quarter worth about $25,911,000. Rokos Capital Management LLP purchased a new stake in AXT during the 1st quarter worth about $18,842,000. Finally, Squarepoint Ops LLC increased its holdings in AXT by 1,347.0% during the 2nd quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 312,999 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $22,561,000 after purchasing an additional 291,368 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 49.52% of the company’s stock.

About AXT

AXT, Inc. develops and manufactures compound semiconductor substrate materials used to make electronic and optoelectronic devices. Its products include indium phosphide, gallium arsenide and germanium substrates, supplied in wafer form for use by semiconductor manufacturers. These materials support applications such as fiber-optic and data communications, wireless devices, lasers, LEDs and solar cells. AXT also provides substrate processing services, including wafer polishing and finishing. Founded in 1986 and headquartered in Fremont, California, AXT serves customers around the world.