AXT, Inc. (NASDAQ:AXTI) Short Interest Up 7.1% in June

AXT, Inc. (NASDAQ:AXTI) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest in June. As of June 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,210,000 shares, a growth of 7.1% from the May 31st total of 1,130,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 857,400 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.4 days. Approximately 2.9% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on AXTI shares. B. Riley upped their target price on shares of AXT from $3.80 to $5.50 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Craig Hallum increased their price objective on AXT from $3.75 to $5.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. StockNews.com upgraded AXT from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $5.00 price target on shares of AXT in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $6.00 price target on shares of AXT in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, AXT presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $5.38.

AXT Trading Up 2.4 %

Shares of AXTI stock opened at $3.44 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $152.74 million, a P/E ratio of -8.60 and a beta of 2.29. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $3.50 and a 200 day moving average price of $3.37. AXT has a 12 month low of $1.89 and a 12 month high of $5.64.

AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The semiconductor company reported ($0.05) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.08) by $0.03. AXT had a negative return on equity of 7.40% and a negative net margin of 21.01%. The business had revenue of $22.69 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $21.00 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.08) EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that AXT will post -0.2 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AXT

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Byrne Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AXT during the 1st quarter worth approximately $28,000. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its stake in AXT by 28.7% in the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 11,200 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 2,500 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new position in AXT in the first quarter valued at $52,000. Brookstone Capital Management purchased a new position in shares of AXT during the fourth quarter worth about $37,000. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of AXT during the first quarter worth about $77,000. 49.52% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.