AXT’s (AXTI) Buy Rating Reiterated at B. Riley

B. Riley reiterated their buy rating on shares of AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) in a report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $6.00 price target on the semiconductor company’s stock, up from their previous price target of $5.50.

Several other equities research analysts have also commented on AXTI. Northland Securities dropped their price objective on shares of AXT from $6.00 to $5.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $5.00 price objective on shares of AXT in a research note on Friday. Finally, Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $5.50 price objective on shares of AXT in a research note on Friday, February 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, AXT presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $5.10.

AXT Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AXTI opened at $1.58 on Friday. AXT has a 1 year low of $1.56 and a 1 year high of $5.64. The company’s 50-day moving average is $2.17 and its 200 day moving average is $2.29. The stock has a market capitalization of $70.71 million, a P/E ratio of -5.64 and a beta of 2.08.

AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.12) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.04) by ($0.08). AXT had a negative net margin of 11.70% and a negative return on equity of 5.27%. The company had revenue of $25.11 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $23.94 million. Research analysts anticipate that AXT will post -0.12 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AXTI. Pacific Ridge Capital Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of AXT by 65.4% in the fourth quarter. Pacific Ridge Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,937,424 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $4,204,000 after buying an additional 766,122 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. bought a new position in shares of AXT in the fourth quarter worth approximately $628,000. Systematic Financial Management LP lifted its stake in shares of AXT by 13.0% in the third quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP now owns 1,477,169 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $3,575,000 after buying an additional 169,406 shares in the last quarter. Kennedy Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of AXT by 13.1% in the fourth quarter. Kennedy Capital Management LLC now owns 915,460 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,987,000 after buying an additional 106,121 shares in the last quarter. Finally, D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. lifted its stake in shares of AXT by 18.9% in the fourth quarter. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. now owns 606,365 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,316,000 after buying an additional 96,195 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 49.52% of the company’s stock.

About AXT

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.