Stock Traders Purchase High Volume of AXT Put Options (NASDAQ:AXTI)

AXT Inc (NASDAQ:AXTI) saw unusually large options trading activity on Friday. Traders purchased 27,622 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of 24% compared to the average volume of 22,222 put options.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other AXT news, Director David C. Chang sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $46.00, for a total value of $920,000.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 72,744 shares in the company, valued at $3,346,224. This trade represents a 21.56% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Morris S. Young sold 37,905 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.13, for a total transaction of $1,938,082.65. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,275,328 shares in the company, valued at $116,337,520.64. This represents a 1.64% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 502,278 shares of company stock worth $21,196,754 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 5.97% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of AXT

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. American Capital Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in shares of AXT during the 1st quarter valued at about $27,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of AXT during the 1st quarter valued at about $31,000. Leonteq Securities AG acquired a new position in AXT in the first quarter valued at about $57,000. KBC Group NV acquired a new position in AXT in the first quarter valued at about $88,000. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new position in AXT in the first quarter valued at about $108,000. 49.52% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have issued reports on AXTI. Needham & Company LLC lowered shares of AXT from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. Wedbush raised their price target on shares of AXT from $8.50 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 20th. UBS Group set a $35.00 price target on shares of AXT in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. B. Riley Financial raised their price target on shares of AXT to $21.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of AXT in a research report on Wednesday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $22.80.

AXT Stock Performance

Shares of AXT stock opened at $123.78 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $69.79 and its 200-day simple moving average is $36.00. AXT has a twelve month low of $1.38 and a twelve month high of $134.00. The firm has a market cap of $8.10 billion, a P/E ratio of -399.28 and a beta of 1.75.

AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.01) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.04) by $0.03. AXT had a negative net margin of 14.69% and a negative return on equity of 6.11%. The business had revenue of $26.92 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $26.22 million. AXT has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.060-0.080 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that AXT will post 0.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About AXT

AXT, Inc (NASDAQ: AXTI) is a global supplier of compound and single-element semiconductor substrates, offering a range of materials critical for high-performance electronic and optoelectronic devices. Founded in 1986 and headquartered in Fremont, California, AXT specializes in the development, manufacture and distribution of wafers composed of gallium arsenide (GaAs), indium phosphide (InP), gallium nitride (GaN) and other compound semiconductor materials. These substrates serve as the foundational platforms for devices used in data communications, wireless infrastructure, advanced computing, consumer electronics and photovoltaic applications.

AXT’s product portfolio encompasses a variety of wafer sizes, dopant concentrations and crystal orientations, tailored to meet the precise specifications of its customers.