Short Interest in AXT, Inc. (NASDAQ:AXTI) Expands By 7.1%

AXT, Inc. (NASDAQ:AXTI) saw a significant increase in short interest in June. As of June 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,210,000 shares, an increase of 7.1% from the May 31st total of 1,130,000 shares. Currently, 2.9% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 857,400 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.4 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AXT

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AXTI. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its position in shares of AXT by 28.7% in the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 11,200 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 2,500 shares in the last quarter. Byrne Asset Management LLC bought a new position in AXT in the first quarter valued at $28,000. Brookstone Capital Management bought a new position in AXT in the fourth quarter valued at $37,000. Brown Advisory Inc. bought a new position in AXT in the fourth quarter valued at $50,000. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new position in AXT in the first quarter valued at $52,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 49.52% of the company’s stock.

AXT Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:AXTI traded down $0.09 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $3.36. 160,060 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,544,777. The company has a market cap of $149.18 million, a PE ratio of -8.40 and a beta of 2.29. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $3.49 and a 200 day moving average of $3.37. AXT has a 52-week low of $1.89 and a 52-week high of $5.64.

AXT (NASDAQ:AXTI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The semiconductor company reported ($0.05) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 company had revenue of $22.69 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $21.00 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted ($0.08) earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that AXT will post -0.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on the company. Craig Hallum upped 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. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $5.00 price objective on shares of AXT in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. B. Riley upped their price objective on AXT from $3.80 to $5.50 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $6.00 price objective on shares of AXT in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded AXT from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $5.38.

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.