AXT, Inc. (NASDAQ:AXTI) Short Interest Down 7.2% in December

AXT, Inc. (NASDAQ:AXTI) saw a large decline in short interest in the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 609,400 shares, a decline of 7.2% from the November 30th total of 656,700 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 376,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.6 days. Currently, 1.5% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have issued reports on AXTI. StockNews.com cut AXT from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $5.00 price objective on shares of AXT in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Northland Securities decreased their target price on shares of AXT from $6.00 to $5.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $5.30.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its stake in AXT by 833.3% during the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 272,416 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $919,000 after acquiring an additional 243,226 shares during the last quarter. ClariVest Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in AXT by 21.1% in the second quarter. ClariVest Asset Management LLC now owns 195,920 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $662,000 after buying an additional 34,120 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its position in AXT by 1,142.1% during the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 377,600 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,276,000 after buying an additional 347,200 shares in the last quarter. XTX Topco Ltd grew its stake in AXT by 135.1% during the second quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 173,726 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $587,000 after buying an additional 99,840 shares during the period. Finally, Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC purchased a new stake in AXT during the second quarter worth approximately $468,000. 49.52% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

AXT Trading Down 2.2 %

Shares of AXT stock traded down $0.05 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $2.23. 229,330 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 939,067. AXT has a 52-week low of $1.73 and a 52-week high of $5.64. The company has a fifty day moving average of $2.20 and a 200-day moving average of $2.65. The firm has a market capitalization of $99.79 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -8.92 and a beta of 2.15.

AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The semiconductor company reported ($0.07) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.06) by ($0.01). AXT had a negative return on equity of 4.58% and a negative net margin of 10.73%. The business had revenue of $23.65 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.98 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($0.14) earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that AXT will post -0.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AXT Company Profile

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.