Short Interest in AXT, Inc. (NASDAQ:AXTI) Declines By 21.2%

AXT, Inc. (NASDAQ:AXTI) was the target of a large drop in short interest in the month of September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 665,400 shares, a drop of 21.2% from the September 15th total of 844,900 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 295,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.3 days. Approximately 1.6% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AXT

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AXTI. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its holdings in shares of AXT by 1,142.1% during the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 377,600 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,276,000 after purchasing an additional 347,200 shares during the period. Acadian Asset Management LLC raised 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 period. ClariVest Asset Management LLC bought a new position in AXT in the first quarter worth about $743,000. Legato Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in AXT in the second quarter valued at approximately $503,000. Finally, Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC acquired a new position in AXT in the second quarter valued at approximately $468,000. 49.52% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have commented on the company. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $6.00 price objective on shares of AXT in a research report on Monday, July 29th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $5.00 target price on shares of AXT in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of AXT from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $5.38.

AXT Stock Performance

AXTI opened at $2.58 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $2.46 and a 200-day moving average of $3.15. The company has a market capitalization of $114.55 million, a P/E ratio of -6.45 and a beta of 2.23. AXT has a 1-year low of $1.89 and a 1-year high of $5.64.

AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The semiconductor company reported ($0.04) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.06) by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $27.92 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $26.50 million. AXT had a negative return on equity of 5.87% and a negative net margin of 14.75%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.12) earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that AXT will post -0.19 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.